Paraskevi "Voula" Papachristou ( gr, Παρασκευή (Βούλα) Παπαχρήστου ; born 17 April 1989) is a 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 the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

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 The European Athletics U23 Championships is a biennial athletics competition for European athletes under the age of 23, which is organized by the European Athletic Association. The oldest of the 'age-group' track and field events held by Europe ...

and took the third place at the 2016 World indoor Championships. She was removed from the Greek team for the

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

by the Greek Olympic Committee after making a racist comment online. At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

' 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 ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, 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 receive ...

at the 2008 World Junior Championships. She competed in the

2009 European Indoor Championships The 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held in Turin, Italy, from Friday, 6 March to Sunday, 8 March 2009. The championships took place at the Oval Lingotto indoor arena

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 The 2009 Mediterranean Games, officially the XVI Mediterranean Games ( it, XVI Giochi del Mediterraneo) and commonly known as Pescara 2009, was a multi-sport event held in Pescara, Italy, from 26 June to 5 July 2009. It was governed by the Inte ...

, 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 The 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, from 4 to 6 March 2011. 577 athletes representing 46 countries competed at the championships. Twenty-six track and field events we ...

without reaching the final. She achieved a personal best of 14.72 metres in June 2011 in

Chania Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion. The muni ...

– a mark which ranks her third among Greek female triple jumpers, after Hrysopiyi Devetzi and

Paraskevi Tsiamita Paraskevi Tsiamita ( el, Παρασκευή Τσιαμίτα, , born March 10, 1972) is a former track and field athlete from Greece who competed in long jump and triple jump. In 1998 she improved her personal best in triple jump by approximately ...

. 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 (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...

, 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) was 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 is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

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 West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family ''Flaviviridae'', from the genus ''Flavivirus'', which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. The 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 The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

in Amsterdam. At the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she took the eighth place. At the

2018 European Championships The 2018 European Championships were the first edition of the European Championships. It was a multi-sport event which took place in Berlin, Germany, and Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (with Edinburgh hosting the diving events and Gleneagles ...

in Berlin she won the gold medal. The following year she took the second place at the

European Indoor Championships The European Indoor Championships was a men's tennis tournament played in Berlin, Germany. The event was played as part of the ATP Tour in 1990 and 1991. It was played on indoor carpet courts. Finals Singles Doubles See also * Berlin Open ...

in Glasgow. 09253 Παρασκευή Παπαχρήστου

Competition record

Personal bests

References

External links

IAAF profile
{{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 of 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 champions (track and field)