Greece celebrated its first swimming medal at the 38th European Aquatics Championships, courtesy of Apostolos Siskos.
The 21-year-old broke the Greek national record once again in the 200m backstroke with a time of 1:53.81 to secure the silver medal—repeating his achievement from two years ago in Belgrade. He finished second only to the unbeatable Hungarian swimmer, Hubert Kós.
A Historic Performance
Siskos dipped under the 1:54 mark for the first time in his career, improving on his 1:54.06 performance from the semifinals. Thanks to a powerful final 50 meters, he managed to hold off Italy’s Thomas Ceccon (bronze with 1:53.96) and Switzerland’s Roman Mityukov (fourth with 1:54.07).
Kós took gold with a time of 1:53.08, adding the European title to his Olympic and World championship crowns. Despite a blistering first 100 meters, the Hungarian couldn’t match his European record time from the previous day (1:52.30) or threaten Aaron Peirsol’s world record (1:51.92), which has stood unbroken for 17 years.
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Siskos: “I Gave It My Entire Soul”
Visibly satisfied yet grounded following his major triumph, Apostolos Siskos shared:
“In the final meters, I realized I was going extremely fast. I gave it my entire soul—I had all Greeks in my mind and wanted to carry the whole country on my shoulders. As for the race itself, I don’t remember much; it all happened so quickly. It was only in the final stretch that I realized I was in medal contention.
“I worked very hard over the past year. Although I had to overcome a few injury setbacks last month, I put all that behind me. Now I’m looking ahead to 2028, which is the main goal for the Olympic Games. Breaking the 1:54 barrier is a major milestone. The level of competition has risen so much that today’s 4th-place time would have won a medal in Paris, but we’ll see how things stand two years from now.”
Related: Greece’s Doumas Crowned European Junior Champion in 100m Breaststroke
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