* By Dimitris Kyriakidis
Stelios Kyriakidis was born on May 4, 1910, in the village of Stato in the province of Paphos, in Cyprus. He started the sport in 1931 in Limassol, with his coach Dr. Cheverton, the English Cypriot chief physician for whom he worked as a domestic helper. In the 1930s and 1940s he became one of the best long-distance athletes in the world, taking part in major sporting events. More specifically, Stelios Kyriakidis participated in the Olympic Games in Berlin (1936) and London (1948), in the English Championship in 1935 and 1937, in the Boston Marathon in 1938, in 1946 and in 1947, in all the Balkan Games since 1933. until 1940 as well as many others at European and international level.
Considered worldwide as a "pioneering" athlete who is 50 years ahead of other great athletes distances, due to the tactics he followed in his training but also in the planning he had in the races. Kyriakidis maintained the Greek record of the marathon for 36 years and 6 months, a fact that was also a world record. On April 20, 1946, he won the Boston Marathon, the most famous marathon in the world, in 2'29'27 '', a time that was a pan-European record but also the best performance in the world at that time. In the race, 116 top athletes of the time took part.
newspapers. Kyriakidis remained in America for a month after his victory, touring almost all major cities with a strong Greek presence such as Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. In them, he used speeches and newspapers in order to inform the American people about the dramatic situation that Greece and its Greek compatriots were in, asking for American help.
Return to Athena on May 23, 1946. Her procession The reception from Elliniko Airport (then called "Hassani") lasted more than 8 hours, with over 600,000 people waiting to receive him. After his valuable work, Kyriakidis received honorary awards from the Municipalities of Elliniko, Kalamaki, Paleo Faliro, Nea Smyrni, the Columns of Olympian Zeus, the Unknown Soldier, the Greek Parliament, the Municipality of Athens and finally the Community of Philothe , before finally being taken to his home where relatives and friends were waiting for him. The same night in his honor, the Acropolis was illuminated for the first time since the end of the war. In 1947, at the age of 37, he returned to Boston to run the marathon again.
The main reason for his decision to return to Boston at such an old age , was to ask for financial help again from the Americans, so that the Greek national team could travel to the 1948 Olympic Games in London, as well as material assistance in sports equipment (clothing, sports shoes, sports equipment). Thus he was considered the first athlete in the world to "run for a special purpose". He was again invited by President Truman to the White House, where he was given $ 50,000 in cash and plenty of used sports equipment from American universities. Thus, the Greek team with a delegation of about 20 athletes went to the Olympic Games in London, where it brought quite satisfactory results.
On March 13, 1947, the US Government, Due to the great publicity that Kyriakidis had given in 1946 to the prevailing situation in Greece, he proceeded with the advance payment of the amount of 400,000,000 dollars, from the "Marshall aid", which had a total amount of 1,377 million dollars. Greece was the only European country that managed to receive an advance payment. In 1951, Kyriakidis was elected a member of the Council of S.E.G.A.S., where he remained a member until his death in 1987, offering his selfless services to Greek sports.
At the same time, Kyriakidis was one of the people who started the renaissance of classical sports in Greece after the war. His social work from 1950 until his death tIt is very big, as it happened in difficult times for Greece, which after the war struggled to be reborn.
Stelios Kyriakidis has been honored in many cities and countries and is known worldwide. Eight statues, busts and memorial plaques exist in Boston, Greece and Cyprus. More than 15 documentaries have been shot in America, Greece and Cyprus, as well as 5 long distance races in his honor. Disney is producing a movie about his life. 7 was the number that was always around him. He won in Boston with the number 77, which he chose in 2h29'27 '', on Saturday (the 7th day of the week), the seventh time that the Boston Marathon is transferred from 19 to 20 April. He is the 35th winner (5x7 = 37) while he passed away at the age of 77, in 1987.