The President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee Spyros Kapralos, was awarded one of the most important distinctions of the Japanese state to prominent personalities from all over the world.
The Medal of the Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Rays after Film, was awarded by the Ambassador of Japan to Greece Yasunori Nakayama to the President of EOE, in a special ceremony at the Ambassador’s residence.
The awarding of the Medal of the Order of the Rising Sun was made following a decision by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Yoshimasa Hayashi for the valuable contribution of Mr. Kapralos to the strengthening of relations between Japan and Greece through sports and for his contribution to the highly successful organization of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The Ambassador of Japan to Greece stated: “The government of the country decided to award Mr. Kapralos as a sign of recognition of the great contribution he made to the success of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. With his continuous efforts and the decisions he made, they were successfully organized and security due to the pandemic, the Touching and Handover Ceremonies of the Olympic Flame while his support for the project of organizing the Olympic Games was continuous. The difficulties we managed to overcome together, I believe, strengthened the relations between Greece and Japan even more, and I want to express my gratitude and respect for the efforts he made not only to make the Games happen, but also to be particularly successful.”
Receiving the award, the President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee said: “This award is a great honor for me. It is something special, just as the Olympic Games you organized were special. The Japanese people in extremely difficult conditions such as the ones we live in, carried out the games with great success, when this mission seemed impossible to fulfill. Japan did us all proud with what it achieved and the Olympics were a huge success. To gather so many people under these conditions is something that only a people like the Japanese with discipline, determination and passion for sports can achieve. For our part, we did our best, lighting the Olympic Flame and sending the Greek team to Tokyo. The Tokyo Olympics were special for me and will forever remain in my heart, because for the first time I participated as a member of the IOC but also because I had the honor and pleasure of awarding the gold medal to a Greek athlete, our rower Stefanos Dusko”.
The Ceremony was attended by the two Vice-Presidents of the EOE Stelios Angeloudis, Stefanos Handakas, the General Secretary Manolis Kolymbadis, the Treasurer Antonis Nikolopoulos, the President of the EOE Marketing Committee Nikos Iatrou and the President of the Greek Olympians and member of the EOE Voula Kozomboli.
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