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 Get a FREE trial Subscription to the TRACK PROFILE Report TODAY! TRACK PROFILE REPORT #146 26-Aug-2004 HALKIA’S RISE FROM OBSCURITY: “ALL YOU NEED IS A GREEK SOUL, AND A LOT OF HARD WORK” by Bob Ramsak (c) TRACK PROFILE REPORT, All rights Reserved ATHENS – (26-Aug) – Fani Halkia’s meteoric rise from obscurity reached a triumphant climax with her gold medal-winning performance in the 400 meter hurdles last night, providing the biggest surprise by far of these Olympic Games. Harkening back to Cathy Freeman’s triumphant 400 meter gold medal run in front of a capacity crowd in Sydney four years ago, the tumultuous roar of the crowd at Olympic Stadium quite likely shook the foundation of the Acropolis when the 25-year-old Greek crossed the finish line in 52.82, just shy of the stunning 52.77 Olympic record she ran in Sunday’s semifinals. “I was told even before the race that it was going to be an amazing night,” said Halkia, speaking through a translator, whose personal best prior to the Games was 53.99. “No matter what anyone says, this experience can’t be described in words. I felt numb before the race. The only thing I was thinking was that I wanted to reach the line first, just to make everyone happy.” The race was extremely tight through the first 300 meters, with the 25-year-old from Larissa not gaining the advantage until she approached the eighth hurdle. Powering down the homestretch, the final 80 meters were hers, and hers alone. Breaking out in a spontaneous celebration, the crowd’s roar was deafening as she feel to her knees, looking up at the sky, struggling to hold back tears. “After the first 200 meters,” she said, “I could feel the stadium rocking. It was like an earthquake at the stadium. It was magical.” Preparing for the race, she said, “was an amazing sensation. And to be very honest, I can remember with the first few hurdles. The second and the third, I have quite a clear picture of them, but after that, all I could focus on was the finish line. I just wanted to cross it first. I didn’t look behind me, and I didn’t think about anything else. It all just went by in a flash.” “Flash” is a suitable descriptor for her rise from anonymity this week, an ascension that was nothing short of startling to virtually everyone besides the personable Halkia. Beginning her career with a best of 62.37 at age 16 in 1995, she dipped under one minute for the first time two years later. In 1998, she made her first start on the international stage, running a rather inauspicious 1:02.50 in her opening round of the World Junior Championships, finishing last. [ Interestingly, American Sheena Johnson competed in those same championships, finishing last in her heat as well, running 1:03.92. Here, Johnson finished fourth. ] But struggling with injury and facing a bleak financial outlook since, she left the sport in 2000, finished her studies and worked several jobs, including a stint as a broadcast journalist. “I didn’t have very much,” she said, “and I stopped because things were extremely difficult. I had a lot of different jobs the two years I stopped sports. But I wanted to start again because I believed in myself. And I think if you believe in yourself, you’ll always achieve your best performance.” Her decision to return to the track didn’t come until she met coach Giorgos Panagiotopoulos, to whom she gives full credit as the architect of a stunning Olympic title that electrified her nation. “It was because I met him that I decided to [come back],” she said. “My coach was one of the few people who believed in me when I started. This gold medal is thanks to his patience, his hard work, his effort. You can’t imagine how many times I asked him, ‘Maybe I’m just not cut out for this. Maybe I’m not good enough.’ But he always changed my mind.” During her victory lap she paid immediate tribute. When Panagiotopoulos emerged from the stands, they met and shared a long embrace. Draped in a Greek flag, she then fell to her knees and bowed repeatedly. “I think he’s the best coach in the world,” she proudly shared. “I know this might seem a bit excessive, but he’s so patient. He’s got such a generous soul, and he really gives us the impetus to train and compete.” But her comeback, she recalls, was anything but rosy. “I once said to a journalist who knew me, that I started training again, and he started laughing in my face. ‘Really, what else are you doing?’ he asked. I’ll never forget that he laughed in my face. And it wasn’t just that journalist. There were a lot of people that laughed in my face when I told them that I started training again. And of course, all of this was extremely difficult, but you’ve got to overcome these obstacles the best you can.” She improved to 58.80 in 2002 and 56.40 last year, but even those progressions were not remotely indicative of what she would produce in 2004. Indoors, she improved markedly. After a national record 51.68 in the semifinal, she went on to finish sixth at the World Indoor Championshipsin Budapest last March. Outdoors, she opened her season winning the Greek title in 54.88, before winning her first significant race, clocking 54.16 to claim the European Cup title in late June. At the Super Grand Prix in Iraklion, Greece, last month, she ran 53.99, the eighth fastest performance in the world this year, to emerge as, at the very least, a contender for the Olympic finals. But after chopping nearly four seconds from her previous best in just 12 months, some believed that her rise was bordering on the “unbelievable.” At the post-race press conference, she entertained all questions, answering politely, calmly and confidently. “If you know about athletics and training, and you know what it’s all about, you know what people can achieve when you train with people who take you and they teach proper training, stretching, warming up,” she said. “Of course, I had to work extremely hard with my coach, and if you do 56.40 after three months, I think the answer is yes, that after a year of very hard work, you can do this under 53 seconds. I think if you know anything about athletics, that goes without saying.” She also addressed the current attention focused on performance enhancing drug use in the sport, insisting that the most recent spate of overwhelmingly negative attention is outweighing the positive in athletics. “I think that in these Olympic Games, we’ve caught the people we‘ve had to catch. And I think this is good,” she said. “I think that there will be more than 10,000 tests, but I don’t think you should jump the gun,” she told a reporter from the United States. “Why give a negative impression of sport? It’s such a shame that these specific incidents cast a shadow on the whole Games and become sort of prime examples.” “I think it’s a real shame to sort of say,” she continued, “that of 10,000 samples, that only a couple athletes have been caught. I know that it just shouts out at people. But we should be focusing on the medals and on the rankings. Not on these negative cases. It’s a real shame, because there are so many other people competing. Why shouldn’t these people be in the limelight? Why should the spotlight be on the negative cases?” In response to a reporter’s question about her coach’s relationship with beleaguered Greek coach Christos Tzekos –“No,” she said, “I never worked with Mr. Tzekos”— she added that she stood firmly by her teammates, sprinters Konstantinos Kederis and Ekaterini Thanou, who withdrew from the Games just prior to the beginning of athletics competition. “To be honest, I want to stand by Kostas and Katerina,” she said, beginning a defense that held the complete attention of the packed interview room. “I know this has nothing to do with it, but because I talked about condemning people, I have to add that it’s real shame to point the finger at someone. There was such an uproar before the Games about this. They just put these two people against the wall and started imagining the wildest things. I know these people, I know how much they trained, I know they spent hours at Pelasgos Stadium. I know how hard they worked to race in these Olympic Games. And I felt it was such an injustice watching it on TV, watching it on the news broadcasts. I thought it was a big injustice.” “I’m being honest,” she continued, referring to Kederis and Thanou. “I really know how hard they worked, I was there, I witnessed it. I know how hard they fought. And I know they would have loved to be here tonight. And it’s a real injustice. Without people having any proof, they came out and accused them of things. People would come out and say, that they’ve done this and that you’ve done that. But there was no positive drugs test to prove anything.” Kederis, the defending gold medallist in the 200 meters and Thanou, the defending silver medallist in the 100, withdrew from the Games following a meeting with an IOC disciplinary commission last week. The commission was not probing performance-enhancing drug allegations, but rather why the pair failed to make themselves available to drug testers prior to and during their stay in Athens. Not noting that distinction, Halkia continued, “It’s such a shame. I understand that you want a scoop, and want to come out and say that this is what happened. But I don’t understand getting the firing squad out just because you want it to be on the news.” Her remarks were met by a resounding applause by many of Greek journalists and Olympic Stadium volunteers in the room. In today’s climate, she said, the line of questioning “is to be expected. The way things have happened, and the way journalism is. But all I have to say is all that Greek athletes need are a Greek soul and a lot of hard work to come first. You can’t just give a Greek heart to someone as a gift. Either you have it, or you don’t. You’re born with it. And once you have it, I think you can come first. That’s the only answer I have to people who level accusations against athletes and coaches. And for those journalists and for those people who do not feel this, they just aren’t made of the stuff that out ancestors were. And it’s a real shame.” After her win in Sydney under equally emotional conditions four years ago, Freeman was unable to reach the same level again, and eventually retired. The difficult job for Halkia will be to summon her Greek soul to ensure that her Olympic triumph won’t follow a path similar to the Australian’s. “What I really want is to continue,” she said. “I believe that if you are strong, and in the past I’ve proven that I’m strong which is why I made a comeback, you’ve got to overcome these obstacles. And you’ve just got to just focus on what you want to achieve.” “I know I’m going to have to do even better and try even harder. As you know even if you do achieve something really amazing, there’s still something above that. Although, actually the Olympic Games, I don’t know if there’s anything else higher than that. Perhaps a repeat performance.” Before her mind can wonder to Beijing, she’s not finished yet here. On Friday, she’ll compete in the opening round of the 4x400 relay. “ I’m going to do everything I can, because I’d like to qualify for the final,” she said. “Tonight was an amazing thing. I want to experience it again. Once was not enough. I want to relive these types of moments all the time.” ----- ----------------------------------------- The TRACK PROFILE REPORT is a news and feature service published by the Track Profile News Service. In addition to regularly dispatched news, profile and interview features, subscribers also receive exclusive on-site updates from major national and international competitions, usually within 24 hours. Copyright (c) 2004 by Bob Ramsak and TRACK PROFILE. All rights reserved. Reproduction, republication, reposting and retransmission in ANY form is strictly prohibited without express permission from the editor. Small portions may be reproduced ONLY if accompanied by source citation and *ADVANCE* notice in writing to Track Profile. Please contact the editor at bob@trackprofile.com for reprint permission. ] ----- ----------------------------------------- The TRACK PROFILE Report is sponsored in part by Shooting Star Media, Inc., publisher of the magazines American Track & Field, ATF Athletes Only, and California Track & Running News. Besides its publications, Shooting Star Media manages three websites and is an advertising representative for The Running Network, a group of 28 regional and national specialty running magazines. American Track & Field [ http://www.american-trackandfield.com ] is a professional magazine geared to coaches, athletes and enthusiasts of track & field, race walking, road racing and cross country running. Links to all Shooting Star Media publications can be found on its website at http://www.shootingstarmediainc.com . ------ ----------------------------------------- Individual subscriptions: $40/year. To make payment arrangements, send an email to bob@trackprofile.com or you can pay by credit card via paypal at [ http://www.trackprofile.com/dispatch.html ]. Likewise, direct all comments, suggestions, questions, and corrections via email to bob@trackprofile.com . More info at http://www.trackprofile.com . END – TPR #146 - 26-August-2004  [ $15.99 - Trade paperback ] [ $6.95 - PDF eBook edition ] |
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