Sofia Sakorafa ( el, Σοφία Σακοράφα, born 29 April 1957 in

Trikala Trikala ( el, Τρίκαλα; rup, Trikolj) is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios. According to the Greek National Stati ...

, Greece) is a Greek-Palestinian politician and former

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the ...

er. She was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

for

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

as member of the political party

MeRA25 The European Realistic Disobedience Front ( el, Μέτωπο Ευρωπαϊκής Ρεαλιστικής Ανυπακοής), or MeRA25 ( el, ΜέΡΑ25), is a left-wing Greek political party founded in 2018. Its founder and General Secretary is ...

, having formerly sat for

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance ( el, Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία, Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás – Proodeftikí Simachía), ...

and before that served, from June 2012 to July 2014, as a Syriza Member of the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...

. She now serves as a deputy speaker in the

for the

party. She is the president of Association hellénique d'athlétisme amateur (SEGAS).

Education

Sakorafa graduated in physical education from 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 ...

Athletics

She started competing in athletics at age fifteen as a member of Trikala Gymnastic Club. In total, Sakorafa – often pushed by her antagonism with

Anna Verouli Anna Verouli ( el, Άννα Βερούλη, born November 13, 1956) is a retired Greek javelin thrower. She was born in Kavala. She won the gold medal at the 1982 European Athletics Championships, and a bronze medal at the 1983 World Championsh ...

– broke the Greek record for the javelin seventeen times. She competed in the 1976 and

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

. She won the bronze medal at the 1982 European Championships 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 ...

. A few days later, on 26 September 1982, at the Greek national championships 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 ...

, Sakorafa broke the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

with a throw of 74.20 metres. That mark stood as a Greek record until the new javelin was introduced in 1999. In 1983, after winning the Balkan Games, she had achieved the third performance of the year with a throw of 72.28 m, but eventually had to withdraw from the World Championships in Helsinki, due to injury.

Competition record

2004 Olympics

Sakorafa stirred controversy in 2004 when she became a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

citizen and applied a few months before the Olympic Games for a berth on the Palestinian Olympic team at the age of 47. She made her debut representing Palestine in Chania, Crete, on 28 June 2004 - her performance was 47.23 metres. Despite the fact that her gesture to participate as a Palestinian was symbolic, the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

ruled her ineligible for the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Professional career

Sakorafa worked in as a secondary teacher of physical education before working as a freelance. From 1994 to 1996, she served as an adviser to the sports minister and as Chairman of the Commission for Sport and Woman.

Political career

She has served on the City Councils of

, from 1994 to 1998, and

Maroussi Marousi or Maroussi ( el, Μαρούσι, also Αμαρούσιο ''Amarousio'') is a suburb in the northeastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Marousi dates back to the era of the ancient Athenian Republic; its ancient name was Athmon ...

, from 1998 to 2006. She was elected as a member of the

under the banner of

PASOK The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...

three times (in the elections of 2000, 2007 and 2009). She failed to win a seat in parliament following the 2004 elections. On 6 May 2010 she refused to vote in favour of the austerity measures and the loan agreement between the Greek government and the IMF/EU. As a result, she was expelled from PASOK and served as an independent member of the parliament until 2012. She participated in the 2012 legislative elections as a member of

and was elected in

Athens B Athens B (Athens Beta; el, Β΄ Αθηνών) was a parliamentary constituency in Attica represented in the Hellenic Parliament. It covered a large part of urban area of Athens outside the Municipality of Athens, which forms the Athens A const ...

. In the

Shadow Cabinet of Alexis Tsipras The First Shadow Cabinet of Alexis Tsipras was formed on 3 July 2012, following the June 2012 Greek legislative election. It consisted of only Syriza MPs, as they were the largest party to refuse to participate in the ND-PASOK-DIMAR coalition. T ...

, she had responsibility for the interior. She resigned from the Hellenic Parliament in May 2014 in order to contest the European Parliament election. In the 2014 European Parliament elections, she was elected as a

Member of European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

for Greece, representing Syriza. She is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the

Committee on Petitions The Committee on Petitions (PETI) is a permanent committee of the European Parliament to offer a petition process including a web portal to create and admit petitions. Its current chair, elected on 10 July 2019, is Dolors Montserrat, member of the ...

and is a substitute for the

Committee on Industry, Research and Energy The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its areas of responsibility relate to industry, especially technology-intensive manufacturing, information technology, and telecommunications. It also ...

. Since 16 October 2014, she has been the chair of the Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America, having previously been a member. She is therefore also a member of the Conference of Delegation Chairs. On 28 September 2015, Sakorafa left Syriza and currently sits as an Independent within the GUE/NGL grouping. She resigned from Syriza over disagreements with the leadership over the introduction of further austerity measures in Greece. She said: "It's clear that I cannot support any government nor any policies that involve measures that harm the people." In December 2018 Sofia Sakorafa joined the Greek party

. On 26 May 2019, she narrowly lost reelection as a member of the European Parliament as member of

References

External links

* *http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-4190090_ITM * * ''This article incorporates text from the articl
Sofia_Sakorafa
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Phantis.com
which is licensed under the

GFDL The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the r ...

.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakorafa, Sofia 1957 births Living people Wikipedia articles licensed under the GNU Free Document License Greek sportsperson-politicians Greek female javelin throwers Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Trikala Olympic athletes of Greece People from Trikala Greek MPs 2007–2009 Greek MPs 2009–2012 Greek MPs 2012 (May) European Athletics Championships medalists Syriza MEPs MEPs for Greece 2014–2019 21st-century women MEPs for Greece Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Greece Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Greece Mediterranean Games medalists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 1979 Mediterranean Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1987 Mediterranean Games Greek MPs 2019–2023 Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine