Interview: Greek Olympic champion attributes her success to family support

Greek 26-year-old pole vaulter Katerina Stefanidi, the Rio Olympic champion, hopes to see more Greek children taking up track and field events, after showing them that with hard work and talent they can overcome any obstacles inside the stadium and in life.

"We have many hits in the past years. I hope that more children will keep coming and more talents will be discovered," Stefanidi said upon her return to Athens from Brazil on Thursday.

Greek sports could not stay unaffected by the severe recession that has hit the country within the last seven years.

Despite slashed state funding and poorly maintained training fields, Greek youth find motives inspired by role models like Stefanidi and the support of their family.

For the Greek champion, a key factor to her win was the support of her husband and coach Mitchell Krier along with the rest of her family.

"I dedicate the medal to my husband who supported me before this," she said with joy and pride before attending a welcome ceremony for the Greek Olympic team at the Presindential mansion.

Though she lives in the United States since 2008 after she gained an athletic scholarship at Stanford University, Stefanidi returned to Athens to celebrate the gold medal with her family and friends. Krier is constantly by her side.

Speaking to Xinhua about the road to success, he said that the communication between them played a significant role to the outcome.

"We are best friends, we think alike, so it helped to really communicate well," he said.

"In a normal coaching situation, the coach just tells the athlete and may not understand. So the athlete does what the coach wants," he explained.

In their situation, for any change regarding Stefanidi's training they could talk through it and decide together.

The athlete's success has not come overnight. Her journey to the top is a result of hard work, persistence and passion for pole vault.

Inspired by her parents, since her father George and her mother Zoe were both Greek champions in triple jump and sprints respectively, Stefanidi followed their path.

When she was aged just 10, Stefanidi's father introduced her to the pole vault. She set world age-group records at 11, 12, 13 and 14. In 2005, at the tender age of 15, she was crowned world youth champion in Marrakesh.

Training is part of her life. Even when she got a scholarship from California's Stanford University and continued with her master degree in Cognitive Psychology, she did not stop practicing. Her passion for pole vault got stronger and stronger.

Despite difficulties all these years, Stefanidi never gave up. As Krier pointed out, "you can train anywhere."

"Many times I have heard stories about Sergey Bubka, the world record holder, would go down to the worse gym there was at the stadium because he wanted an old ragged gym to train in and he broke the world record 35 times," he stressed.

But, during her preparation, did her husband foresee the first place in Rio?

"At the beginning of the season there were a couple of changes that I thought she really needed to make. She started making them really quick and I saw that the sky is unlimited," he told Xinhua.

"We took the risk and it worked out," he added.

So, what is next for Stefanidi? The world record maybe? "I think she is very capable of breaking the world record. It's on her eyes definitely," Krier said. Endit