Paraskevi "Voula" Papachristou ( ; born 17 April 1989) is a former Greek

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the tr ...

er and

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

er. She won two gold medals at the European Athletics U23 Championships and took the third place at the 2016 World indoor Championships. She was removed from the Greek team for the 2012 London Olympics by the Greek Olympic Committee after making a racist comment online. 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 ...

' final in Rio de Janeiro, she took the 8th place. In 2018 she was the European Champion in Berlin with a jump of 14,60 metres.

Career

Born in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, Papachristou won the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the 2008 World Junior Championships. She competed in the 2009 European Indoor Championships and went through the qualification round with a jump of 14.47 metres. However, in the final, she was injured and failed to register a valid jump. After taking the bronze medal at the 2009 Mediterranean Games, she competed at the 2009 World Championships without reaching the final round. She won the gold medal at the 2009 European U23 Championships that season. During the indoor season of 2011, she competed in the qualifying rounds of the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships without reaching the final. She achieved a personal best of 14.72 metres in June 2011 in

Chania Chania (, , ), also sometimes romanization of Greek, romanized as Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania (regional unit), Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno ...

– a mark which ranks her third among Greek female triple jumpers, after Hrysopiyi Devetzi and Paraskevi Tsiamita. This jump was also the second best ever achieved by a European under-23 athlete after Anna Pyatykh's record of 14.79 m. She successfully defended her gold medal at the 2011 European U23 Championships in

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

, Czech Republic.

Expulsion from 2012 Olympics

Papachristou was to compete in the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, but was expelled from the Greek team on 25 July 2012 after she posted on her

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account a message which has been translated to: "With so many Africans in Greece... the West Nile mosquitoes will at least eat homemade food!!!" This was in reference to a small outbreak of West Nile virus in Greece that had sickened at least five and killed one person. The tweet, for which she later apologized for being an unfortunate and tasteless joke, was condemned by the Greek Olympic Committee as contrary to Olympic values and ideals.

2013–2019

In May 2013, the Greek athletics federation suspended her athletic benefits effective from 4 January 2013, stating that the athlete's benefits would be reinstated if she began training with an approved coach and resumed high-level competition. Papachristou took a break from track and returned in 2015 - after the birth of her daughter - with George Pomaski as a trainer. She won the bronze medal at the 2016 World Indoor Championships in Portland, as well as at the European Championships in Amsterdam. At the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she took the eighth place. At the 2018 European Championships in Berlin she won the gold medal. The following year she took the second place at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

Competition record

Personal bests

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Papachristou, Paraskevi 1989 births Living people Greek female triple jumpers Athletes from Athens Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Greece European Athletics Championships medalists Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Greece Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2009 Mediterranean Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Greek European Athletics Championships winners 21st-century Greek sportswomen People from Athens