“Athens 20 Years After”
Greece Celebrates the “Dream” Games, Euro 2004 and Paris 2024
by Philip Barker
The 2004 Greek Olympic and Paralympic teams and the side which won the 2004 UEFA European Championship have been reunited at “Athens 20 years after “a celebratory event at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens which also honoured the competitors at Paris 2024.
“Twenty years ago, all Greeks came together with an ambitious goal and a shared vision to show the world the best version of our country,” said Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos.
The Athens Olympics were dubbed “unforgettable Dream Games” by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.
“We overcame challenges, difficulties and doubts and together we achieved the miracle, we put Greece back on the world stage where it belongs and we regained our national confidence,” Capralos recalled this week.
Athens 2004 Chief Operating Officer Marton Simitsek received a commemorative memento on behalf of the organising committee.
Greece won six gold, six silver and four silver medals at the Games twenty years ago and many team members were present for the event.
A month before the Games, Greece had also won the 2004 European Championships in what was considered a shock result.
Coached by Otto Rehhagel, Greece beat host nation Portugal.
Rehhagel returned to Athens to greet his former team and Giorgos Karagounis, the most capped player in Greek football history received a special award from International Olympic Academy President Isidoros Kouvelos and Paris 2024 Chef de Mission Petros Synadinos.
20 years previously, the procession of the team from the airport to the same Panathenaic stadium had caused a huge traffic jam.
Members of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic teams also joined the celebration and received their mementos from Capralos and Greek Paralympic President Giorgios Kapelakis.
Long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglu won Greece’s only gold medal at the Paris Olympics. In the Paralympics there was gold for Athanasios Konstantinidis in men’s F32 shot put, blind sprinter Athanasios Ghavelas won 100m T11 for the second successive Games with his guide Ioannis Nyfantopoulos and Para swimmer Alexandra Stamatopoulou in women’s 50m backstroke S4.
The celebration in Athens included a performance of the Olympic Anthem by soprano Vassiliki Karagianni, ERT National Symphony Orchestra and a laser and light show.
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