Evangelia Platanioti Wins Silver at World Aquatics With Syrtaki Dance

Greek artistic swimmer Evangelia Platanioti has won silver in the ‘solo free’ category with her syrtaki dance at the World Aquatic Championships in Doha.

While donning a blue and white swimsuit, artistic swimmer Evangelia Platanioti performed the syrtaki dance to the tune of “Zorba,” which gained the 30-year-old an overall score of 253.2833 and saw her take the silver medal.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee took to social media platform X to congratulate the artistic swimmer, writing ““Evangelia Platanioti was outstanding, taking out silver at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha. After the gold in the solo technique, she won the silver medal in the final of the solo freestyle program. Congratulations Evangelia, you are making history!”

Evangelia Platanioti Has Won a Total of Four Medals, Including Her Syrtaki Dance

Evangelia Platanioti has now won a total of four medals at the World Aquatic Championships, including the gold she secured three days ago on Saturday, January 3rd. This was the first time Greece has placed at the top in an artistic swimming world championship.

At the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Evangelina Platanioti was on the podium twice again, receiving two bronze medals.

The athlete’s gold medal in the technical solo was awarded for her ‘black crow’ performance, which gained the 29-year-old an impressive 272.9633 points and left Canada’s Jacqueline Simoneau in second place and China’s Huiyan Xu in third.

After the win, Evangelia Platanioti told Greek public television ERT reporter that she could not describe the feeling in words.

Although she did point out that initially she had not intended to continue competing solo, she decided to compete in Doha to an astounding end. Speaking after winning her gold, Evangelia Platanioti, having not yet performed her syrtaki dance, said, “Words cannot describe it. It’s a magical moment, I’m so excited. To be honest, last year I intended not to continue as a soloist because my practicing was insufficient.”

She continued, “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.”

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 performed in a duet with Evelina Papazoglou, and ranked in 10th place. In 2009, she won in Russia in solo, while two years later, she won a European medal in the duo.

Shortly before the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, she tested positive for COVID-19 but, after few days, she tested negative and made it through to Tokyo to compete in the Games. However, a 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.

The Syrtaki dance that Evangelia Platanioti performed is a dance of Greek origin, choreographed for the 1964 film Zorba the Greek. It is a recent Greek folkdance with a mixture of “syrtos” and the slow and fast rhythms of the hasapiko dance. The dance and the accompanying music by Mikis Theodorakis are also known as Zorba’s dance, the Zorba, or “the dance of Zorba.”