The Cypriot sailor Pavlos Kontides has stressed that the road to silver medal in 2012 London Olympic Games was rough and full of challenges; however, as he pointed out, with insistence, positive thinking and the support of his family, he made his goal reality.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Kontides thanked his family for the moral and financial support, saying that without his parents’ assistance he could not do much since the sport of sailing requires, beyond the talent, a significant amount of money, which during the current year exceeded 100.000 euros.
He expressed hope his parents not to finance his activities again and the state to support the young and talented Cypriot athletes. “I wish with my success some things will change, so that young athletes to be financially supported”, he said noting that there are many talented athletes in Cyprus, who will seek their dreams in sports if the state provides them the needed incentives. “Then, we will have new achievements and more medals”, he added.
The Cypriot Olympic silver medalist sent the message that in life, no matter what, we should see at the positive sight of things and not at the negative, setting as an example his injury in 2010, when some doctors advised him to stand down and have a surgery.
Finally, he stressed, with positive thinking and with the assistance of his trainer Andreas Nicolaou, managed to overcome this obstacle.
Kontides also said that people’s recognition makes him feel happy and gives him strength to work hard. “I was fighting with the waves and I was only popular to my family and friends. Now I know that there is recognition and that the people of Cyprus are with me and this is something that I consider positive”, he pointed out.
As regards his plans for the future, the Cypriot sailor said that after the end of this summer he is planning to return to Southampton, where he studies Shipbuilding-Hydrodynamic-Aerodynamics and in November, he is planning to go with his coach to Croatia for training. Kontides will exclusively focus on his training two years before the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
The 22-year old sailor secured the silver medal in Men’s Laser in 2012 Olympic Games. He also won two consecutive World Youth Sailing Championships in Kingston Britain in 2007 and Aarhus Denmark in 2008.
His first Olympic Games participation was in Beijing in 2008 where he finished 13th in Men’s Laser. In 2011, he finished 5th in Men’s Sailing Championship and first in Youth Sailing Championship in Hayling Island. He secured his participation in the London Olympics in the 2011 World Sailing Championship in Perth, Australia.
Cyprus, an island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, started taking part in the modern-day Olympics as an independent state at the 1980 Moscow Games.
