IIoannis Melissanidis with the statuette. [Photo: Ilida Kampos News]
Freedom of Olympia for Legendary Gymnast Melissanidis and Weightlifter Dimas
by Philip Barker in Ancient Olympia
Ancient Olympia has conferred its greatest award on two legendary Olympic Champions to mark the 2800th anniversary of the first recorded Olympic Games of ancient times.
Ioannis Melissanidis won gold in the men’s floor exercise at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
“It is an extra honour for me to become an “honour citizen” of this great city,” said Melissanidis.
“As an ambassador of the city, for me the big goal is not just to remember Ancient Olympia every two years or every four years but using the International Olympic Academy, the youth and the young generation so we can welcome people from all over the world so that it will become a worldwide spot to promote Olympic values.”
The gold won by Melissanidis was the first by a Greek gymnast since the first Olympics of the Modern Era in Athens.
“It is a solo sport but there was a team behind me so I want to thank my parents, my coach my physio for making it possible.”
“It is maybe the sixth time that I have seen this video but everything is in my mind and is very vivid so every time that I observe this video it’s really emotional to be on the podium singing the national anthem.”
His success paved the way for other Greek gymnasts including DImosthenis Tampakos who won gold on the rings at the 2004 Athens Olympics and Lefteris Petrounias who took gold on the same apparatus at Rio 2016.
At the presentation Ceremony Melissanidis received a miniature statue of the goddess Nike and spent almost half an hour posing for photographs with locals.
“They honour me with their presence so it is my duty to open my arms and say thank you for that.”
The other laureate named was three-time Olympic weightlifting champion Pyrros Dimas.
He was unable to attend the Ceremony because his wife, Aphrodite Skafida, had just given birth to their fifth child.
Dimas described his new daughter as “our little miracle and angel.”
In 1996 Dimas was a team mate of Melissanidis.
“He is one of the greatest athletes. I wish him and his wife and the young angel they have, the very best from the bottom of my heart,” added Melissanidis.
There are no comments published yet.