Maria Ntanou ( el, Μαρία Ντάνου; born 3 March 1990) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

, Olympian who has competed since 2007. She was an Athlete Role Model of

2020 Winter Youth Olympics The 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games (german: Olympische Jugend-Winterspiele 2020; french: Jeux olympiques de la jeunesse d'hiver de 2020; it, Giochi olimpici giovanili invernali del 2020; rm, Gieus olimpics da giuvenils d'enviern 2020), offic ...

. Ntanou has represented her country, Greece, in three Winter Olympic Games, and she was the flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Career

Ntanou finished 72nd in the 10 km event at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. She took 76th place with +6:03.6 from the Norwegian Olympic Champion Ragnhild Haga at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...

, which is the best result for Greece in this discipline. In

2022 Beijing Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

, Ntanou competed in four disciplines
sprint
an

At the

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 ( cs, Mistrovství světa v klasickém lyžování Liberec 2009) took place 18 February – 1 March 2009 in Liberec, Czech Republic. This was the fourth time these championships were hosted either in ...

Liberec Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preser ...

, she finished 82nd in the individual sprint while being lapped in the 15 km pursuit event. At the

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2017 The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2017 was the 40th World Championships in nordic skiing and took place in Lahti, Finland from 22 February to 5 March 2017.

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

, she finished 8th in the 5 km qualification classic race. She also won the overall Greek national cup series in 2019. At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2021 in Oberstdorf, Ntanou raced in four disciplines: sprint, skiathlon, 10 km free technique and team sprint.

Olympic Winter Games results

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships results

FIS Balkan Cup results

Ntanou won a bronze medal in the overall ranking of the FIS Balkan Cup series in 2017 and 2018.

Greek National Championships results

Personal life

Ntanou grew up in Naousa, a town in the northern part of Greece with great tradition in winter sports. She studied Economic Science at the

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

and graduated in 2012. At the age of 23, Ntanou moved to

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

to study Sport Administration and Technology (AISTS) at

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

References

Sports Reference
* 1990 births Living people Greek female cross-country skiers Olympic cross-country skiers of Greece Cross-country skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2022 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Veria {{Greece-crosscountry-skiing-bio-stub