Stavroula Zygouri (; born May 4, 1968, 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 ...

) is a retired amateur Greek freestyle wrestler, who competed in the women's middleweight category. She picked up a silver medal in the 63-kg division at the 2001 Mediterranean Games in Tunis, Tunisia, and later finished fourth in

, when

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 ...

hosted the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. Before her sporting career ended in 2012, Zygouri trained as a member of the wrestling team for Atlas Kallitheas in her native

, under her personal coach and mentor Panagiotis Kalaigidis. Zygouri emerged herself into a sporting fame at the 2001 Mediterranean Games in Tunis, Tunisia, where she captured a silver medal in the 63-kg division, losing her final match to Italy's Diletta Giampiccolo. She also had an opportunity to compete for the Greek squad in the same category at the 2003 World Wrestling Championships in

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, but left empty-handed with a sixth-place effort. When women's wrestling made its debut at the

, Zygouri qualified for the Greek squad, as a 36-year-old, in the inaugural 63 kg class. Apart from placing sixth at the World Championships, she also managed to fill up an entry by the International Federation of Association Wrestling and the Hellenic Olympic Committee, as Greece received an automatic berth for being the host nation. Amassed the home crowd inside Ano Liossia Olympic Hall, Zygouri started the prelim pool in a more sedate fashion with a pair of effortless victories over Germany's

Stéphanie Groß Stéphanie Mary Groß (born 12 October 1974 in Basel, Switzerland) is a retired amateur German freestyle wrestler, who competed in the women's middleweight category. Gross has claimed four medals (three silver and one bronze) at the World Champ ...

4–1 and Sweden's Sara Eriksson 5–3 to grant her a spot in the medal rounds. Zygouri was immediately pinned by U.S. wrestler

Sara McMann Sara McMann (born September 24, 1980) is an American mixed martial artist currently signed to Bellator MMA, competing in the Women's Featherweight division. She is a former Olympic wrestler and received a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympi ...

in her semifinal match within 50 seconds, and then fell behind France's Lise Legrand with a similar disposition at two minutes and four seconds for the bronze medal, dropping her to fourth place. Currently, Zygouri works as a secretary for the association of the Greek athletes under the Hellenic Olympic Committee, and also, a member of the Department of International Women's Sports Wrestling Federation for FILA.

References

External links

* * 1968 births Living people Greek female sport wrestlers Olympic wrestlers for Greece Wrestlers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Martial artists from Athens Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Greece Competitors at the 2001 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in wrestling {{Greece-wrestling-bio-stub