Greece’s Petrounias Wins Gold At European Championship

Eleftherios Petrounias, the celebrated Greek gymnastics athlete, once again proved his dominance in the still rings event on Friday evening by winning a gold medal in the 2024 European Championships in Artistic Gymnastics that was held in Rimini, Italy.

This was the 7th European Championship gold medal for Petrounias. The 33-year-old Greek Olympic champion once again demonstrated his exceptional strength, precision, and unmatched artistry in a breathtaking performance.

Petrounias earned a score of 15.000 points. This brought him to the top, ahead of Azerbaijan’s Nikita Simonov who earned 14,900, and Turkey’s Adem Asil who gained the same amount of points.

Cheered on by his beloved wife Vasiliki Millousi, who is a former Olympic gymnast herself, as well as their two daughters, Petrounias executed his routine flawlessly, leaving the audience and judges in awe with, yet again, another win.

These successes of Petrounias have not come without their fair share of obstacles. In 2018, he had to deal with a persistent shoulder injury that required surgery and forced him to miss the 2019 European Championships. However, Petrounias refused to let this setback derail his Olympic dreams and worked tirelessly to regain his form and fitness for the then-upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

Their postponement, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, offered Petrounias a truly unexpected opportunity to strengthen his bid for a second consecutive Olympic gold medal even further, as the Games would take place in 2021 rather than 2020. With an extra year to prepare, he was able to adjust his routines and maintain his competitive edge.

Thus, despite his surgery, Petrounias managed to win a bronze medal in the Japanese capital, only to be followed by more medals in the coming European competitions.

Τι άλλο μπορεί να ειπωθεί για τον @Petrounias_E, αυτόν τον τεράστιο αθλητή που η διάρκειά του στην κορυφή δείχνει το αθλητικό του μεγαλείο.
7η φορά Πρωταθλητής Ευρώπης, στο δρόμο για το @Paris2024
Λευτέρη, ευχαριστούμε! pic.twitter.com/BL4tyR8u2x

— George Mavrotas (@Mavrogiorgos) April 26, 2024

Who is Eleftherios Petrounias?

Petrounias is the 2016 Olympic champion, 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, three-time World champion (2015, 2017, 2018), and now a seven-time (2011, 2015–18, 2021, 2022, 2024) European medalist on the still rings.

He is considered by many experts and fans of the sport to be one of the greatest gymnasts of all time and was named Best Greek Male Athlete for four consecutive years from 2015 to 2018.

Born in Athens in 1990, he was brought to the Panionios Gymnastics Club at the age of five by his mother so that he “could release his energy,” as he has said before in an interview.

At the age of 20, Petrounias won his debut major international medal at the 2011 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Berlin.

The European Gymnastics Championship

The European Gymnastics Championships are gymnastics competitions that have been organized by the European Gymnastics Federation for decades. They include championships for various gymnastics disciplines, including artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, acrobatic, and aerobic as well as TeamGym championships.

Petrounias is taking part in the artistic gymnastics championships that are being held every two years. The last time such a competition was held in Greece was in 2006, when the city of Volos hosted the prestigious event.