Alexi Pappas or Alexia Pappa (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Αλεξία Παππά; born 28 March 1990) is a Greek-American runner, filmmaker, actor, and writer. Pappas was an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

athlete at both

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

and the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

. She represented

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, setting the national record for 10k.

Early life and education

Pappas was born on 28 March 1990, to a

- American father who has roots from

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

and an American mother. She has a brother who is four years older.Alexi Pappas, Dartmouth College: 2012 Woman of the Year Top 9 Finalists

youtube Pappas grew up in

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

. Her mother died by suicide when Pappas was four years old.

Athletic career

Bishop O'Dowd High School California Interscholastic Federation

As a sophomore at Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd High School, Pappas placed fourth in the Division III girls 5K race at the

California Interscholastic Federation The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have s ...

State Cross Country Championships in 2005. Pappas's high school coach refused to let her participate in multiple sports, even though boys at the same high school were permitted to do so, and stated that this affected her physical development.

NCAA

Pappas was a two-time NCAA all-American at

. She was one of nine finalists for the 2012 NCAA Woman of the Year award. She also won the 2012 season's Ivy League title in the steeplechase (9:58.80) and qualified for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene. Pappas graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

in creative writing and English from

in 2012. Pappas attended the

as a master's student, where she earned three

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

awards. She finished eighth individually at the 2012 NCAA Cross Country Championships with a time of 19:43.9 (6,000 meters) helping the Oregon Ducks women's cross country team win the national title. She graduated from Oregon with a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in 2013.

2016 Olympics

Pappas became a

citizen on 8 January 2016 and on 1 May that year she broke the 10,000 m Greek national record, which had stood since 2002. She represented Greece at the

. At the Olympic finals, she improved her national record when she finished 17th in 31:36.16.

2022 Boston Marathon

Pappas served as a guide for para-athlete Lisa Thompson in the 2022 Boston Marathon, who won the T13 (Visual Impairment) Division with a time of 3:47:25.

Honors

Filmmaking

Pappas has made several movies as a director, writer, actor, and producer. These include ''Tall as the Baobab Tree'' (2012), ''Speed Goggles'' (2016), '' Tracktown'' (2017), and '' Olympic Dreams'' (2019), which was the first fictional movie filmed in an Olympic village.

Author

Pappas's first book, ''Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas'', with a foreword by

Maya Rudolph Maya Khabira Rudolph (born July 27, 1972) is an American actress and comedian. In 2000, she became a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). During her tenure on the show, she appeared in supporting roles in ...

, was published on 12 January 2021.

Personal life

In 2020 Pappas published a video about her struggle with depression, calling for better care of elite athletes' mental health.

References

External links

* * *
Author Profile for Alexi Pappas
on Amazon Books {{DEFAULTSORT:Pappas, Alexi 1990 births Living people Track and field athletes from Oregon Track and field athletes from California Greek female long-distance runners American female long-distance runners Greek female steeplechase runners American female steeplechase runners Olympic athletes for Greece Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Dartmouth Big Green women's track and field athletes Oregon Ducks women's track and field athletes American people of Greek descent Greek people of American descent Greek film producers American film producers Greek film actresses American film actresses Oregon Ducks women's cross country runners Dartmouth Big Green women's cross country runners Bishop O'Dowd High School alumni People from Alameda, California 21st-century American sportswomen 21st-century Greek sportswomen