Blissful and with a permanent grin on his face, rings gold medalist Eleftherios Petrounias promised more medals upon his arrival to Greece from the Rio Olympics.
Petrounias landed at Eleftherios Venizelos Athens International Airport a little after noon on Thursday. He was welcomed by his family and friends and numerous reporters.
“For a week now I enjoy watching the race and the medal award ceremony again and again on video. Things came as I dreamt they would and I am very happy,” the Olympian told reporters.
“We had some difficult years to get to this level and many failures. I would like to say that to get where we are today, first we failed and then we succeeded,” Petrounias added.
“It was my great wish to bring home this medal… I was moved when the whole stadium stood up for our national anthem. Behind a medal like this you can find the character and ethos of an athlete… A piece of this medal belongs to the Greek people… The next day is the day of my vacation, because I promise a lot for the next four years,” Petrounias said.
Regarding the lack of support from the recession-stricken state, Petrounias said that, “The state does what it can, but we want a little more support. If we managed to get six medals under these conditions to take six medals, a little assistance will do wonders,” Petrounias concluded.
After his arrival, the Olympic champion went to the Presidential Palace, President of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos held a reception for the Olympics athletes.
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