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Antigoni Drisbioti
Antigoni Drisbioti (Greek: Αντιγόνη Ντρισμπιώτη; born 21 March 1984[1]) is a Greek race walker, who is widely considered as the best Greek walker of all time.[2][3][4] Drisbioti won gold medals in the 20 kilometres walk and 35 km race walk at the 2022 European Athletics Championships, the first golden double for Greece at the event.[5] She also won the bronze medal in the 35 km race walk at the 2023 World Athletics Championships held in Budapest. In addition, Drisbioti finished fourth in the 35 km walk at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. In addition, she took bronze in the 20 km walk at the 2013 Mediterranean Games. She represented Greece at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Drisbioti is the Greek record holder for the 3000 m walk, 20 km walk and 35 km walk. She won eight national titles. In Greece, she was named as the Greek Female Athlete of the Year for 2022 and 2023.[6] CareerDrisbioti was born in Karditsa (Greece), but her family soon had to move to the town of Atalanti for better working conditions. She lived there until the age of 8 before returning to Karditsa, where she completed high school. Her family run a small taverna in the center of the town, where, according to her own statements in a television interview, she worked for many years alongside her training. She decided to practice walking as a sport as a freshman in high school and made her international debut at the age of 19 at the 2003 European Race Walking Cup held in Cheboksary, Russia.[7][8][1] But the same year, Drisbioti gave up her sporting career, started studying Sports Science and only began to train and dedicate herself to the sport again in 2011 aged 27.[8] She is married and lives in Karditsa.[9] Drisbioti celebrated her first major success at age 29 at the 2013 Mediterranean Games in Mersin, Turkey, where she won the bronze medal in the 20 km race walk with a time of 1:41:53.[1] She competed at the Summer Olympics for the first time in 2016 in Rio, finishing 15th in the 20 km walk. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she placed eighth in the event.[1] At the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich, the 38-year-old won the gold medal in the 35 km walk with a championship record of 2:47:00 after finishing fourth at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon the previous month in 2:41:58, a national record. With her second gold medal in Munich in the 20 km walk event in a personal best time of 1:29:03, she became the first Greek athlete to win two gold medals at a European Championships.[10][11] On 10 July 2024, the Greek Olympic Committee designated her as the flag bearer for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, along with the Greek professional basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo.[12] StatisticsInternational competitionsNational titles
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