How George Karlaftis found his way to football between Greece and Indiana

Before 2014, George Karlaftis never had football on his radar.

Growing up in Athens, Greece, his sporting plate overflowed with swimming, soccer, tennis, basketball, track and field, judo and water polo, in which Karlaftis fast-tracked as a young teen. Karlaftis fit in every arena. He has a confluence of gifts -- size, speed, confidence and drive -- that allowed him to pick any athletic endeavor and excel. But Karlaftis ultimately pivoted away from all of those sports, and toward one that rarely, if ever, came up during his childhood.

"[Football] was perceived as very dangerous, barbaric," he recalled. "A little bit of fear tactics for us not to play."

His father, Matt, an accomplished athlete in Greece who competed in track and field at the University of Miami, hoped Karlaftis and his two brothers would never participate in football. Matt's only brush with the sport had led to a traumatic head injury and surgery.

"I was scared, I never really wanted to play growing up, you know, and [in Greece], it's not really an issue," Karlaftis said.

Greek athlete Marios Giannakou carries disabled student to peak of Mount Olympus

“There is nothing more real than the dream. 09:02 am We reached the top of Greece with Eleftheria and our team,” Marios Giannakou's Instagram post read in reference to Mount Olympus.

This was the post of the long distance athlete who informed about the successful completion of, what he described a few days ago, as the most important and beautiful race of his life. He conquered the top of Mount Olympus, carrying on his back, in a specially modified backpack, 22-year-old Eleftheria Tosiou, who has mobility problems.

“There is nothing more real than a dream,” writes the athlete from Drama in northern Greece, accompanying his post a photo of himself with the young biology student on his back, the Greek flag in his hand and a wide smile of satisfaction on the faces of both.

When Eleftheria met Marios through one of their common friends, she confided in him that she wants to ascend to Mount Olympus.

Without a second thought, the Drama athlete checked the diary, studied the meteorological forecasts, organized the appropriate support team and made his young friend’s dream come true.

Anna Korakaki to become first woman to start Olympic torch relay

Greek Olympic shooting champion Anna Korakaki has been selected to start the torch relay for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the first time in games history a woman is serving as the first torchbearer.

Greece's Olympic Committee said Thursday it picked Korakaki, who took gold in the women's 25-meter pistol event at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016, to receive the Olympic flame from an actress playing the role of a high priestess in a flame-lighting ceremony to be held on March 12 at Ancient Olympia.

After Korakaki runs the first part of the relay, she will pass the torch to Mizuki Noguchi, the winner of the women's marathon in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Noguchi will be the first Japanese person to carry the 2020 Olympic flame when she collects it in Olympia, western Greece.

Football legend Mimis Domazos opens first free Soccer Academy in Greece

Retired Greek football legend Mimis Domazos, who is considered by many to be one of the best players that Greece has ever produced has opened the first free soccer academy in Greece, which will also support stray animals in Athens.

According to the announcement made by the Academy of Greek Football, the 77-year-old nicknamed “The General” is inviting children between the ages of 4 and 16 to enroll and train for free throughout the season, while also supporting stray dogs and other animals in the Greek capital.

The only catch is he requests that those who are in a position to do so, provide dry food, canned food and anything else they wish to donate towards stray animals in Athens.

Fans around the world wish Giannis Antetokounmpo a happy 25th birthday! (videos)

Reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo celebrated his 25th birthday on December 6th and fans from around the world - including Greece, Malaysia, Russia, the Philippines, China, Malawi, Australia and the US - took time to send him their wishes.

Χρόνια Πολλά Γκρικ Φρικ!

Spyros Gianniotis to be inducted into International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 2020

The International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame announced on Saturday that Greek swimmer Spyros Gianniotis will be inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame in 2020.

Gianniotis will become the second Greek swimmer to be a member of the Hall of Fame, after Jason Zirganos, who was honored back in 1971.

Gianniotis has competed in every Olympic Marathon event since 2008.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he came in 16th place. In the 2012 London Olympics, he finished in the 4th place, when he missed the bronze medal by only five seconds.

In 2016 during the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he finished second, winning the silver medal.

Greece's Leonidis bids farewell to friend and rival Naim Süleymanoğlu at funeral

Valerios Leonidis, Greek weightlifting champion who was a friend and rival of deceased Turkish Olympic weightlifting champion Naim Süleymanoğlu, showed the true nature of sportsmanship once again when he attended the funeral of the "Pocket Hercules" on Sunday.

Among the dozens of fellow athletes and dignitaries at Süleymanoğlu's funeral, Leonidis stood out as he quietly approached the late weightlifter's coffin draped with a Turkish flag and kissed it. He was probably the only Greek national to attend the funeral and few recognized this 51-year-old former weightlifter from Greece.

Yet, it was Leonidis who inadvertently cemented Süleymanoğlu's fame as a record-breaker. In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he and Süleymanoğlu were in the spotlight as two tough rivals expected to bring home more than a few titles.

"The good side of Greece" supports the GoFundMe campaign for seriously injured diving champion Androgeos Sampsakis

Please donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/seriously-injured-diving-champion 


A message by Evangelos "Stefanos" Tzivopoulos, Head Diving Coach / President of the Hellene Clavadistas:

My beloved friends all over the world.

I am doing this GoFundMe for my beloved friend National and International Junior Champion Androgeos Sampsakis.
 
Androgeos is 17 and is an extremely sweet and talented kid. He is the Greek and Balkan champion this year and a very promising athlete.

Kevin Durant thinks Giannis Antetokounmpo could become the "best ever" to play in NBA (video)

Kevin Durant might just be Giannis Antetokounmpo's biggest fan, at least among NBA players.

Going back to June, when Antetokounmpo won most improved player at the 2017 NBA awards ceremony, KD took to his YouTube channel to congratulate the young player, saying "it's guaranteed" that the Bucks' star will be the NBA MVP someday.

More recently, in a video posted on Friday on his YouTube channel, KD gave Antetokounmpo another huge compliment.

In the video, KD takes questions from fans as part of a Q&A for readers of Fast Company, a magazine that will be featuring Durant on the cover of its next issue. One of the questions is, "Who are your favorite players in the NBA to watch?"

Greek legend Nick Galis joins Hall of Fame (KaliEllada tribute)

He is Nick Galis to some and Nikos Galis to millions of others. He is the celebrated Greek hero who, almost single-handedly, changed the course of Greek basketball, turning it into a national sport. He’s also a Jersey kid and Boston Celtics draft pick who just entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame thanks to the International committee.

Galis’ first sport was actually boxing, but his mother soon put the clamps on his burgeoning career. Her horror at seeing her son come home every day with a new facial injury led to Galis taking up basketball and in 1970 began to play at Union Hill High School.

Greek women's basketball team take gold at Deaflympics!

For the first time ever the women's deaf Greek basketball team has won gold at the Deaf Olympics!

After winning the European Championship last year in Thessaloniki, the women's deaf national team added another gold medal to their collection after beating Lithuania 67-50 in the final of the Deaflympics.

The match was quite tense until the end of the third period when the score was just 39-38 for Greece. At that point, however, the athletes of coach Zerva made the biggest push of the game and outscored the Lithuanian team 28-12 to win the historic match.

Stratos Papafilippou: The wonderful "Eric" of Thassos (full documentary)

"Eric" is the short documentary by Faidon Gkretsikos and Panos Tragos that tells the story of Stratos Papafilippou, the doppelgänger of football legend Eric Cantona, from the Greek island of Thassos.

In the mid-90s two English tourists told Stratos Papafilippou, the owner of a small bar in Potamia, Thassos, that he bore a striking resemblance to the legendary French footballer Eric Cantona. 

Stratos did not know who Cantona was but he figured it could be a good business opportunity. So he cut his hair, put on a Manchester United jersey, and began appearing in public as "Eric Cantona in the flesh," determined to one day meet the real Cantona in person.

Vaggelis Chatzis: The Incredible Story of the Only One-Armed Boxer in the World (videos)

The ultimate underdog story of a Greek who lost his right arm and went on to become the only one-armed boxer in the world, titled “The Greek”, will be premiering at this year’s LA Greek Film Festival on Thursday June 8.

Created by Anastasios Papapostolou, the 26 minute-long documentary follows the life of Greek boxer Vaggelis “Cobra” Chatzis. The Greek professional fighter struggled through a tough upbringing and the physical challenge of only having one arm to pursue a path in the world of boxing. Today, Chatzis is recognized as the only one-armed competing boxer in the world.

Papapostolou opened up about his inspiration for filming the documentary “The Greek”, saying “I felt it was the most inspiring underdog story I had stumbled upon during my 15 years in journalism.”

Takes a village: ‘Greek Freak’ got many assists growing up

He was just a scrawny, hungry kid, the son of migrants from Nigeria, trying to survive in Sepolia, a modest Athens neighborhood.

The club coach who spotted 13-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo and his brother kicking a soccer ball around a neighborhood field says the NBA All-Star grew up in constant fear of the police, and of being deported.

At that time, Antetokounmpo had only dabbled in basketball and was mostly interested in soccer. "He could not make a layup and he could not dribble," Spiros Velliniatis said.

But the teenager's character impressed Velliniatis, with a determination and toughness that showed through. "He was a champion before he was a basketball player," Velliniatis said.

Antetokounmpo ties career scoring high, Bucks rout NBA Champions Cavaliers (video)

After building a big third-quarter lead against the defending NBA champions, the Milwaukee Bucks poured it on in the fourth. And when the Cleveland Cavaliers pulled their starters, including LeBron James, midway through the final period, the young Bucks still didn't let up.

"We didn't let them off the hook. We were attacking," said Giannis Antetokounmpo, who tied a career high with 34 points while the Bucks stunned the Cavaliers 118-101 on Tuesday night. "They are the champs, but this is a great win."

Bucks coach Jason Kidd had high praise for Antetokounmpo, who was often matched up against James. "He's getting better with hard work," Kidd said. "He was going against the best player in the world."

Fitness for the family at the vast facilities of the Athens Olympic Stadium!

“There’s no more just sitting around drinking coffee. The new trend is for parents to work out and put their kids in classes. One mom will draw in another. OAKA offers so many different activities that you’re to sure find the best fit for you,” says Sarah Karali from Harry’s Gym.

Indoor climbing, kick boxing, indoor cycling, yoga: The list of athletic activities on offer at the vast facilities of the Athens Olympic Stadium (OAKA) in the northern suburb of Maroussi goes on and on.

Maria, aged 14, started going to the gym instead of surfing the web on her tablet while she waited around for her brother during basketball training.

Young Greek pole vaulter Emmanuel Karalis scaling the heights

Teenaged Greek pole vaulter Emmanuel Karalis is determined to scale new heights despite the negative impact of the country's financial crisis on sport.

Fresh from breaking the world youth record, a mark which had stood for 12 years, this month, the 16-year-old is being hailed as a future star of Greek athletics.

With his leap of 5.53 metres at the national indoor championships in Piraeus, Karalis finished third behind Greek champion Kostas Filippidis, eclipsing the 2004 record of 5.51 set by Argentine German Chiaraviglio.

But rather than bask in the glory of his feat, Karalis, who received his first pair of spikes from Filippidis, is not resting on his laurels.

“For a kid my age what I've achieved is huge, but to be honest I feel like now my career is starting; this is the platform I can use to train harder and improve,” he told Reuters.

Antetokounmpo Named NBA's Eastern Conference Player of the Week!

The NBA announced today that Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo has been named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Feb. 2-8. The award is the first of Antetokounmpo’s career.

Celtic fan Jay Beatty invited to Greece for award

Jay Beatty, the little Celtic fan who became an internet hit when he was seen on social media sites cheering on his hero Georgios Samaras in the World Cup, has been invited to Greece to pick up a top sports award.

Jay - who has Down’s syndrome - travelled from his home in County Armagh, Northern Ireland to watch the striker as he played his final game for the club at the end of last season and Samaras was delighted to have him there cheering him on.

Dimitris ‘DK’ Kyrsanidis Wins Red Bull Art of Motion Santorini 2014! (video)

Local hero Dimitris Kyrsanidis (GRE) seized victory at Red Bull Art of Motion 2014 by beating 17 of the world’s best freerunning athletes on Santorini’s urban track. Pavel Petkuns (LAT) came second and Alexander Baiturin (RUS) finished third to grab the two remaining podium spots.

It was a winning run full of creative tricks and fluid movements from Kyrsanidis who gave a world-class performance above the whitewashed stone roofs of Santorini to impress the judges. A crowd of 1,500 spectators celebrated the 19-year-old winning the fourth edition of freerunning’s most celebrated title. The shock result saw two-time champion Pavel Petkuns pushed into second place.