Greek media has been abuzz over the past few days with various stories and innuendo about why Anna Korakaki wasn’t present at the official welcome home ceremony of the Greek Olympic team that the President of the Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, was hosting for Greek Olympians.
Some pro-government media claimed Korakaki was invited but could not attend because she was out of the country, while others suggested it was an intentional snub since Korakaki had previously expressed her displeasure with lack of government support for young athletes.
Korakaki turned to Facebook to share her version of the “truth,” claiming in a long post that she was never invited to join fellow Olympians, leaving the government in an embarrassing situation and having to backtrack on several statements about why she wasn’t present.
Anna Korakaki, Greece’s only two-medal winner at the Rio 2016 Olympics was blatantly absent from the Greek government’s official ceremony welcoming home the Greek Olympic Team.
Korakaki won a Gold and a Bronze medal at the Rio Olympics in shooting competitions.
She received a hero’s welcome when she returned to her native Drama, where locals had organized a huge welcome party for her. She explicitly asked that no members of the government be present at the ceremony or reception, asking only those who had helped and supported her along the way to be present.
“The truth is I was never invited by anyone and any efforts trying to falsify this truth, in order to justify their unjustifiable ‘mistake’, is sad and undignified,” said Korakaki in a statement on her Facebook page.
“The fact I’m on holiday is just a good excuse for those who decided I shouldn’t be there … because I believe they did not in fact forget but actually they chose this.
“It has made me terribly disappointed that nobody informed me or even asked me, as had been agreed, and this comes on top of dozens of similar incidents and behavior I’ve been faced with,” she added.
“It’s like ‘Korakaki doesn’t exist, didn’t go to Rio and didn’t achieve anything, she’s just a ghost’.”
The complete post (in Greek) is below:
