“Queens of the pool” at 27, the Alexandris sisters remember the difficult days of their stay in Austria and set their sights on Los Angeles.
If the Alexandri sisters overcame the chasm for the lost Paris medal, they owe it to the baby elephants, Buddhist temples and white sands of Thailand. “We had bought the plane tickets before the Olympics so that we would meet before the end whether we felt happy or not” they explain. “Otherwise, the walls of the house will crush you.” Returning to Vienna they remeasure the distance that separated them from the podium and feel better.
The fourth place of Irini and Anna-Maria in the artistic swimming duet, with the triplet Vasso watching in tears from the stands, is no small achievement. However, injustice haunts their everyday life. Shortly before returning to Austria, where they have lived since they were 15, the two champions open their hearts to Document. “We are for the difficult” they say.
Were you really wronged in Paris? When I met you in the mixed zone you were seething with bitterness and anger. Would you make similar statements if you were speaking today?
The content would be the same but the wording would be different. It was an explosion of emotions in our attempt to condense everything into a few words in front of a microphone. Yes, we still maintain that there was an injustice. People don’t know the sport and can’t understand it. However, the words we heard from other athletes on the spot and in the following days were touching. “We’re sorry” they told us, “you deserved it”. The coach of a medal winning country told us that we have the respect of the whole pool and that they look at our programs to learn. However, respect and recognition count a lot. Our mother told us the same thing: “What else do you want? These words are better than a medal.”
Would a medal change your life?
Financially you mean? No. In Austria there are no benefits for Olympic athletes like in other countries. Not even gallons in the Armed Forces. Just a premium from some sponsor that you actually get in sterling. Around 20,000 euros for the gold, similar to what any athlete who wins a world title gets. So what did we have, what did we lose. If the podium equaled financial security, perhaps the lost medal would have hurt more. We say that because some people think that we went to Austria for the money. No. Our family has lost money since we ran away. We live just outside Vienna – the three of us together in the same house, on rent. As long as we are active athletes we are paid by the army, the basic salary, just enough to live. When sports ends, so does the army. Our “service” is training.
And is this life, girls?
We feel vindicated. We left at 15 to do what we loved. We had 150% appetite for work and faith in our dream. We may not have won an Olympic medal, but we are all three world and European champions. Let’s not discount the fourth place of Paris. She is ungrateful but also honorable. It was the manner in which the medal was lost that bothered us, not the ranking itself. This is also a life lesson, to make the skin tougher.
It’s been twelve years since you went abroad. Three 15-year-old girls alone in the unknown with a boat of hope.
We can’t believe it’s been so long either. Fifteen years here, twelve already there. We arrived in Austria as three teenage girls and we didn’t know anyone. We didn’t speak a word of German and only understood ‘for’. The rooms in the boarding school were double rooms, so our sister Vasso was forced to stay with an unknown girl. At least we had each other. Of course, there was also excitement and curiosity. We felt like we were starting something like student life. But our whole life was training. We didn’t even have a ticket to participate in the interclub championship. Certainly not the Austrian citizenship.
I guess the initial excitement faded quickly.
The second year started very hard. As soon as September arrived and mother left, after a two-month vacation in Greece, we mourned all day. What we were going through was something like mourning. The supervisors were shocked. They called the coach to take us for a walk to have fun. This lasted about a month. Slowly it passed. Fortunately we got our citizenship honorably and got the right to compete. We also did French at school. Funny thing, we had to translate from French to German and then to English and then to Greek to understand. In both languages you get a gift…
From what I understand, mom was your big support.
She deserves the biggest thanks. She also sacrificed many things from her life. What parent lets their kids run away at 15 and at such a risk? Hardly anyone. She emptied her house suddenly, from where she lived crazy daily rhythms. And it’s not like she had any money left over. She is a music teacher in a primary school. Mom is a very strong woman, our role model in life. She followed cold logic and not emotion. Our escape was like diving into the void, since when we left we had nothing certain. Citizenship could be delayed seven years. Now she feels vindicated. He feels good when we are good.
After all, what was the cause of this hospitality? What would have happened if you lived in Greece?
We would never represent our country in an international competition and consequently we would not be able to do what we love. We were already three years in the Greek national team, winning gold medals for our country and five years Panhellenic. There was no other way out or choice. We would be forced to stop playing sports. Our whole lives changed that day and we feel nothing but gratitude. Why have we experienced so much injustice? Only people who were there at the time can answer. Every difficulty has something to teach us. Through difficulties we overcome ourselves and this helped us to reach where we are today.
Would you also dedicate any Olympic medal to Greece? You now exclusively represent Austria.
Yes, of course. In our sport, the foundations that the athlete gets from a young age play a big role, along with hard work and will. The coach we used to have in Volos, Katerina Maritsi, helped us a lot to become what we are today. All three, not just one or both. We were supported by many other people in Greece, as well as in Austria. Our family is here, so are many friends. Our sports psychologist Frosso Patsou is also Greek and contributed to the psychological part of the preparation. And above all, mom. Mother’s law was always: “If you want to get into the national team, be ten times better than the others and rely on your own strength alone.”
Complete each other’s sentences. You constantly talk as if you are not two but one person!
It applies! We are often in the constellation of “we”. I was talking to my physiotherapist, I was alone and I said: “We will come tomorrow”. We have a very good relationship, we live together, we are loved and we are good friends. Whatever happens in the future, we know that we will not be lost. Of course, there are also frictions and tensions and fights, usually during training. As would be the case with any team. Of course the characters change. Tastes change here, won’t the characters change? I used to hate avocado and now I eat it plain. However, we don’t drink coffee.
Is there a plan for the future? Will you live in Austria or Greece?
Age-wise, he’s taking it easy on us for another Olympic cycle. We are not one of the youngest, but the years have not taken away from us. For our life the day after tomorrow everything is open. There is absolutely no plan. The pace of life there has nothing to do with Greece. They roll down the blinds from 8pm and you can’t find anyone to show you the way. Some people go to bed at 9, while we did that when we were kids. We also enjoy the rhythms of Greece, but also the timetables of Austria suit our own approach. Both by temperament and because we are dedicated to what we do. Of course, another might have gone out every night after training. We went to bouzouki for the first time two weeks ago here in Athens, in Vertis…
In Austria, do people recognize you on the street?
Yes, very often. We saw it even after Paris. Where we were walking they bumped into each other and said “Here are the triplets Alexandri”. An 83-year-old grandmother watched me type and told me that I reminded her of her youth at the sewing machine. When we first arrived in Austria, in 2012, the country did not have artistic swimming. “You went to the wrong place” some told us. All in all, there are three 50-person swimming pools in the country, while only Volos has two. On the days of the Olympic Games, the whole of Austria stood in front of the television to watch us. However, if we had remained in Greece, we would not have even competed.
If a small child came up to you and asked for the essence of your experience, what would you tell them?
That life is difficult, full of setbacks and injustices, but at the same time beautiful and exciting. Keep fighting and don’t give up. Rely solely on your own strength. When one door closes, another one opens. There are no dead ends. Chase your dream even when it seems impossible. There are no unsolvable problems in life. To exhaust all possibilities.
Life like a movie
You are only 27 years old, but already your life looks like a movie script.
They have already suggested us to shoot a movie or write a book! Artistic swimming is but a microcosm. It cannot be compared to football or athletics. We don’t need to analyze everything with a magnifying glass. We are bystanders from life.
Our goal is to live happily and happily and we already see it differently. We left the Olympics disappointed, our whole career flashed before our eyes in the one minute until the scores came out, but we know we did our best. We’re not going to paint them black. Besides, we are talking about fourth place in the Olympic Games. Other athletes just dream of competing in an Olympiad.
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