There are sporting triumphs that show up on results sheets, and there are triumphs that carry an entire story with them. The two gold medals won by Anna Maria and Eirini Marina Alexandri at the European Championships in Paris, in the technical and free duet of artistic swimming, as well as the honours earned by Vasiliki Alexandri in the free and technical solo, undoubtedly belong to the second category.
Behind them lies a journey of fourteen years, a childhood spent far from Greece, major successes with Austria, and a deep desire that stayed alive all those years: to come back one day and compete again for their country.
Together with Anna Maria and Eirini Marina, their triplet sister Vasiliki wrote her own chapter in Paris, competing in the solo event, where she finished fifth in the technical and seventh in the free programme. Her route was even more demanding, as a serious knee injury and a bout of tonsillitis shortly before the championships limited her preparation, without shaking her belief in her abilities.
Starting from scratch abroad
For the three sisters, the Europeans were not just another big event; they were the first major chapter of a new life that began when they decided to return to Greece.
Their story had started much earlier, when at just 14 they found themselves in a foreign country, without speaking the language, far from their family environment and needing to juggle school with the ever-growing demands of elite sport.
“We didn’t speak the language. We had to go to school to continue our studies there. It was very difficult because we left on our own,” recalls Vasiliki, describing a period in which the three sisters had to grow up much faster than their age.
In that harsh reality, however, there was something that kept them together and gave them the strength to carry on: each other. “What saved us, I would say, was that we had one another; we were together,” she says.
Adaptation, of course, did not happen overnight. Vasiliki still remembers how hard it was to feel away from her sisters even when they were just in the next room. “I missed them terribly. It was very difficult […] to be away from the girls,” she explains, capturing the feelings of three children who had left Greece together.
In Austria, though, they learned to endure and to fight for what they wanted. Artistic swimming became the central axis of their daily life, while the wait for citizenship was yet another test. When they were finally able to compete, the major successes soon followed, with the three sisters claiming important international titles and establishing themselves at the top of European and world artistic swimming with Austria.
New life back in Greece
Despite the successes, Greece never left their thoughts. “I believe we always had a deep desire inside us to compete for Greece,” says Eirini Marina, explaining that going back was not a snap decision but a wish that had been within them for years.
She is also open about the reasons they left Greece. “We left because of a lack of meritocracy, as we have stated in the past,” she notes, adding that by the time the proposal to return arrived, things had changed. “Now things have completely changed. The leadership is new. […] All these people believed in us, supported us, and I think that is what every athlete wants.”
They also make special mention of the people who stood by them from the very first moment of their return to Greece, recognising the support they were given at this new beginning. The three sisters thank the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Isidoros Kouvelos, the president of the Hellenic Swimming Federation, Kyriakos Giannopoulos, as well as team manager Despina Karampela.
The decision to return, even though it meant leaving behind a life they had built from scratch, was ultimately joint and immediate. “It was a very difficult decision but also a very easy one. We took it unanimously, straight away. We said, we’re all three going,” says Vasiliki.
Anna Maria puts it even more emotionally: “We really wanted to come back here. Our whole family is here, our home, our friends.” After 14 years, the three sisters returned to Greece, knowing that this would not simply be a homecoming, but the start of an entirely new life.
Moving and training
This change also came with very practical challenges. “We moved, we brought 200 boxes to Greece,” remembers Anna Maria, while at the same time the three sisters had to adjust to their new circumstances and maintain their competitive level.
They had only five months of preparation, at a time when most of the countries they would be competing against had a full season behind them. “We had five months of training, which is very little if you think that all the other countries have 12 months of training,” explains Vasiliki.
For her, the build-up was even tougher, as a serious knee injury kept her out of the water at a stage when every training session mattered hugely, while just before the Europeans she also had tonsillitis.
In Paris, she did not manage to win the two medals she had set as a personal target, but she did not leave feeling she had left anything undone. “Of course I wanted two medals; it didn’t happen. I was very upset,” she admits, before adding, “I don’t feel any guilt because, since I gave 100%, I couldn’t have done anything more.”
The next opportunity is already ahead of her, anyway, as she notes: “Next year we have the World Championships and the European Games, and there it is definitely my goal to win the two medals that, in inverted commas, I ‘lost’ this year.”
Search for roots
For Anna Maria and Eirini Marina, Paris had a special emotional dimension. Before the championships, they had said they wanted very much to hear the Greek national anthem – and in the end, they experienced it twice.
“We had said before we went to the championships that we really wanted to hear the national anthem,” says Anna Maria. That moment was not just the peak of a competition, but a distillation of their entire journey. “Our whole journey passed before us, before our eyes, especially from March when we came to Greece, because that was a big step and a big change for us,” she recalls.
The emotion was also linked to the fact that this time they were competing for a country which, despite the years spent away, they still saw as home.
“Our whole family is here, our home, our friends. We are very happy and moved that we now compete for Greece,” says Anna Maria, who admits that even everyday life in Greece feels different. “Even when I go out just for a walk, I feel differently than I did in Austria. […] Here I enjoy it in another way.”
The love of the public also played an important part in their return. They speak with particular emotion about the moments when people approach them in the street, congratulate them or talk to them about their achievements. “All of Greece has embraced us and we want to say a big thank you to everyone in Greece for the love we have received,” says Anna Maria.
A mother behind the athletes
Behind the three sisters, however, there is another person who has played a decisive role throughout this journey: their mother. She was the one who saw her three children leave home to start their lives in another country, knowing that this choice would change her own life as well.
“Her home emptied: from having three children there, suddenly she was left alone,” says Anna Maria, adding that, despite the hardship, their mother fully backed their choice: “She supported 100% our fight and our wishes […] We owe her everything.”
The relationship between the three sisters remains one of their greatest strengths. They are not just teammates, but people who, since childhood, have shared the same anxieties, the same sacrifices, the same joys, and the same disappointments. “I am very proud and blessed with what we have between us, the three of us, and with our mother,” says Vasiliki, describing a family that stayed close-knit despite the distance and the changes.
Now, though, their story is not only about their own past. The three sisters want their return to Greece to be an opportunity to help the new generation of artistic swimming, passing on to younger girls the experience they have gained from 14 years of elite sport abroad.
Eirini Marina says they have already spoken with younger athletes and believes that sharing what they have lived through is a way for everyone to move forward together. “We want to inspire in a positive way, to support the new generation,” she says.
Looking back, she does not see the hardships as wasted time or as a chapter she would rather have skipped. On the contrary, she believes that everything that happened made them who they are today.
“Every difficulty, even the fact that we were forced to leave Greece, all that shaped us,” she says. “I think we also went beyond our limits – and beyond limits we never even imagined we had.”
The two gold medals in Paris, then, are not just the final line of a results sheet. They are the outcome of a journey that began when three girls left Greece at 14 and learned to grow up far from home, always having one another.
They are the continuation of a path that took them to the top of Europe with Austria and ultimately brought them back to Greece, this time with the desire to create here the next chapter of their lives and their careers.
And if there is one thing that best sums up their attitude today, it is that they do not see the golds in Paris as the end of the road. “I believe we still have a lot to give and that we haven’t got there yet,” says Anna Maria. Vasiliki, for her part, puts it in a way that encapsulates their whole philosophy: “My goal every time is to show up improved and to be the best version of myself. And then, if the medal comes, it is welcome.”
Their gaze is now fixed on the next major events: the World Championships in Budapest in the summer of 2027, the European Games a little earlier, and finally, the Olympic Games in 2028 in Los Angeles.
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