Greek Artistic Swimmer Evangelia Platanioti Wins Gold at World Championships

Greek artistic swimmer Evangelia Platanioti won the gold medal in the technical final of the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar on Saturday.

The 29-year-old artistic swimmer gathered 272.9633 points leaving in second place Canada’s Jacqueline Simoneau by 3.6866 points and Chinese Huiyan Xu in third by 10.5933 points.

The Greek athlete managed a terrific performance and walked on the top step of the podium with a feeling she could not describe in words, as she told the Greek public television ERT reporter.

At the same time, she pointed out that initially she did not intend to continue competing solo, but after realizing her potential, she decided to compete in Doha and was finally vindicated:

“Words cannot describe it. It’s a magical moment, I’m so excited,” she said.

“To be honest, last year I intended not to continue as a soloist because my practicing was  insufficient,” she said. “However, I knew my potential and continued to go to Doha. I want to thank my coaches, both from the (Greek) federation and my coach from Spain. All four of them were on my side and they gave me the strength to continue solo. I worked very hard and the result has justified all of us.”

This gold medal was the second-ever for Greece in World Aquatics Championships competitions at any category (Youth, Junior or Senior).

Who is the Greek artistic swimmer Evangelia Platanioti

Evangelia Platanioti was born on August 9, 1994 in Athens and began as an artistic swimmer in 2003. She has been a member of the Greek National Team since 2007. In her first participation in the Olympic Games in London, she competed in a duet with Despina Solomou and became the eighth Olympian.

In 2016, at the Rio Olympics, she was a duet with Evelina Papazoglou, and ranked in 10th place. In 2009, she won the world’s biggest power, Russia, in solo, while two years later she won a European medal in the duo.

Shortly before the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, she was tested positive for COVID-19 but after few days, she tested negative and she made it through Tokyo to compete in the Games. However, few hours after her Duet Technical performance, more cases were announced within the Greek artistic swimming team which resulted in the withdrawal of the entire team from the Games.

In 2021 he won the Silver medal in the solo artistic program at the European Aquatics  Championships as well as the Bronze medal in the free solo of the same event. She is a graduate of the University of Piraeus in Business Administration.