Cyprus at the Olympic Games: interesting facts

The world is watching the Olympic Games in Paris. Cyprus is represented in eight sports, the national team consists of 15 athletes. How has the island participated in the Olympics in the past?

– The history of Cyprus’ participation in the Olympic Games goes back more than 2000 years. Athletes from the island competed in games in honor of the god Zeus at Olympia back in ancient times. Sources mention Iraklid, Onesicritus, Artemidorus and Apollodorus from Salamis, Nikon and Neon from Karpasia, Zoilus from Paphos. But the most famous Cypriot Olympic champion was Demetrius, who won the pentathlon in 229 and 233 AD and the stadium in 229, 233 and 237 AD.

– In 1896, that is, in the first Olympic Games after their revival on the initiative of Pierre de Coubertin, three Cypriot athletes competed for the Greek team. Limassol shooter Ioannis Frangoudis won three medals (gold, silver and bronze), and Lefkoniko-born cyclist Aristides Konstantinidis won one gold. These Olympic medals remained the only ones won by Cypriot athletes until 2012.

– However, chronologically, the very first Cypriot to take part in the Olympics was 19-year-old Anastasios Andreou from Limassol. On April 7, 1896, he ran the 110-meter steeplechase.

– In 1906, the IOC held the Extraordinary Olympic Games in Athens. The original idea was that regular and extraordinary Olympics would alternate at intervals every two years, which would make international sports life richer. In them, Cypriot Ioannis Pieridis won silver.

However, the Extraordinary Olympic Games of 1906 were the only one of their kind. Due to the political crisis in the Balkans, the next extraordinary Olympics was canceled (it was also planned in Athens), and in 1918 the IOC abandoned the very idea. The 1906 games are not considered official and do not have a number. The medals won there are not considered Olympic medals.

– Cypriots continued to compete for Greece until 1976, and in athletics until 1980. Among the most prominent were Renos Frangoulis, the only Cypriot at the 1932 Olympics, Domnitsa Lanitou, the first woman in the Greek team (participated in the 1936 Olympics), marathon runner Stelios Kyriakidis (1936 and 1948 Olympics).

– For the first time, the national team of the Republic of Cyprus took part in the Olympics in Moscow in 1980.

– In 2008 in Beijing, Cyprus showed good results when two athletes, Antonis Nikolaidis and Giorgos Achilleos, took 4th and 5th place in clay pigeon shooting.

– Cyprus’ only medal to date is the silver of yachtsman Pavlos Kontidis at the 2012 Olympics in London.

– At the 2024 Olympic Games, Turkish-Cypriot athlete Buse Savashkan competes in the high jump for the Turkish team. She was born in 1999 in the occupied part of Nicosia. She studies coaching at the University of Health and Social Sciences in Morphou. Since 2017 he has been living in Turkey.

The text was prepared based on materials from Sigma 

On topic

Nicosia hosts the exhibition “Road to Paris”, which is dedicated to this year’s Olympics. It consists of two parts: “Olympic Ladies” and “History of the Olympics from Antiquity.” The first section will talk about the struggle of women for the opportunity to participate in the Olympics on an equal basis with men. The second part is devoted to the history of the first Games in ancient Greece. It also presents the history of the creation of the Cyprus Olympic Committee.

About this and other cultural events follow the link.