Panagiota "Peny" Karagkouni ( Greek: Παναγιώτα Καραγκούνη; born July 1, 1993)
Peny Karagkouni Bio is a Greek

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

player. Her debut appearance in beach volleyball tournaments was in 2013, when she replaced

Maria Tsiartsiani Maria Tsiartsiani ( el, Μαρία Τσιαρτσανη; born 21 October 1980 in Thessaloniki) is a Greece, Greek Olympic beach volleyballer. She competed at the Beach volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament, 2008 Summer O ...

as Vicky Arvaniti's partner.
FIVB Biography In her first season in beach volleyball, and despite being the new member of the team, she managed (with Vicky Arvaniti) to finish 5th in the finals of the European Championship held in

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

hosted by CEV.
European Championship Finals Ranking. Her greatest achievement to date has been the silver medal she gained with Vassiliki Arvaniti at the 2013 Mediterranean Games, XVII Mediterranean Games held at

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

.
, Mediterranean Games Results. In addition, on 28 July 2013 she won the Greek Championship held in Athens and she – along with Vassiliki Arvaniti, Arvaniti – was the player who would represent the Greek National Team in all international competitions for the following year.
Greek Champions 2013. She reached her first important FIVB milestone on 14 December 2013, by obtaining the 9th position at the FIVB Beach Volleyball Durban Open for the first time in her career, this being the greatest achievement for the team since she partnered up with Vicky Arvaniti.
FIVB Durban Open Results. In April 2014,

returned to action after a successful surgery on the right shoulder and only a few months after she had given birth to her first child, and she teamed up with her ex-teammate Vassiliki Arvaniti, Arvaniti. Consequently, Peny took part at the Continental Cup round 1 hosted by CEV as being the second Greek team partnering Evangelia Christou this time and managed to obtain the first place, which gave the Greek national teams the opportunity to compete at the second stage of the tournament that would lead to the 2016 Summer Olympics, Olympic Games of Rio 2016. Soon after this, she teamed up with Pigi-Anna Metheniti (with whom she played until late 2015) and a few weeks later they managed to finish 2nd in the Greek Championship behind Vassiliki Arvaniti, Arvaniti/ Tsiartsiani. During the second season of the Greek duo, they took part in the first European Games held in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

where they managed to finish 17th in their international debut.
European Games Karagkouni Metheniti 17th place. Moreover, during the same year, they finished 2nd in the Greek Championship, losing 2–1 to Vassiliki Arvaniti, Arvaniti/ Tsiartsiani at a "repeat" final as of 2014.
Greek Championship 2015 final. Also, they took part in two tournaments for the Balkan Championship in

Burhaniye Burhaniye is a coastal town and district of Balıkesir Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. The district is located on the Aegean coast and is known for its olive oil. Burhaniye has a port and a museum of archeology. A museum for the Turk ...

and

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

finishing third and second respectively.
Karagkouni Bio FIVB. Finally, she competed in the 2014–2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup, CEV Continental Cup Rounds 3 and 4 where she got the second place, getting a ticket for the finals of the competition which will be held in

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

in June 2016.

Early life

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 ...

, Karagkouni started playing

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

at the age of 6 for Iraklis Kifissias, and in 2008 she got promoted to the women's first team even though she was only 15. She has won 9 Greek Championships in indoor

with Iraklis Kifissias at the U15, U17 and U19 categories. For some years, she used to play at all three categories at the same time. In addition, "Peny" was playing as a libero player for 9 years and as an outside hitter for another 3. At a very young age, Karagkouni started representing the Greek national team in indoor volleyball taking part in various international championships., Appearances with National Team. While being a member of the U17 and U19 Greek national teams, her position was libero even though she had started playing as an outside hitter over the last years of her career in volleyball. She counts 75 appearances with all national teams. After five successful years with the Greek team, she started playing

as a partner of

Vassiliki Arvaniti Vassiliki "Viky" Arvaniti ( el, Βασιλική (Βίκυ) Αρβανίτη), also transliterated Vasiliki; born March 17, 1985, in Athens, Greece) is a beach volleyball player from Greece, who won the gold medal at the 2005 European Champion ...

. Karagkouni is studying Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology at the University of Athens since 2011.

Distinctions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karagkouni, Panagiota 1993 births Beach volleyball players at the 2015 European Games Competitors at the 2013 Mediterranean Games European Games competitors for Greece Greek beach volleyball players Women's beach volleyball players Greek sportswomen Living people Mediterranean Games medalists in volleyball Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Greece Panathinaikos women's volleyball players Sportspeople from Athens