Gionis in the last part of his preparation before Paris 2024

Panagiotis Gionis has now entered the last ten days of his preparation before leaving for Paris 2024 (scheduled for 23/07).

Since last Monday he has been participating in a strong camp of the German federation in Dusseldorf, he finishes it tomorrow 14/07 and the next day he goes to Brodby, Denmark for a similar gathering of great European athletes for the Olympic Games.

In Athens, he has essentially completed his work on the table and in physical condition and declares that he is completely satisfied. The cameras recorded this part from the Peace and Friendship Stadium and the OAKA training rooms respectively and in view of the historic 6th participation of the leading Greek athlete in the biggest sporting event on the planet, consecutive videos are presented on the internet.

The topics are prepared by EFOEPA and gre78.tv on YouTube, the federation’s WEB TV channel, and the beginning was made with videos on individual fitness training. It has been taking place for years in the K1 and K2 training facilities with the trainer Michalis Tomaras, former champion of athletics in the high jump.

Gionis talks about how much the work has paid off in this particular area and Tomaras explains parts of it and how the weight has dropped just before the big appointment in the French capital.

It should be added that even now in Dusseldorf and later in Broadby, Gionis is doing physical fitness based on the program and instructions of Tomaras from Athens. “It’s the most important part for me especially, now that I’m at an advanced age athletically, and if I feel good in this part I can feel very good on the table as well. We have a perfect collaboration with Michalis and I am so pleased that I will emphasize that he is a very big factor, that I can still be and present myself so competitively”, the top defender stressed among many others in his interview and at another point he underlined: “For the Olympic Games I think that you should be more mentally and psychologically ready because of the stress that will be present, than in physical condition. This is definitely needed, but the games are fewer, so we focus mainly on being quick in my game, explosive and not so much on endurance”.

For his part, Tomaras pointed out at the beginning of his statements: “Recently, we want Panagiotis to remain in very good physical condition and at the same time to be very explosive. To be his explosive power to the maximum extent. At the same time, we’re looking at the power part of him starting to taper off, being a little lighter in his games. In our field we work very hard anyway, that’s how we are going in the run up to Paris, then everything depends on Panagiotis and as you can see he has been doing great all these years”.

In the excellent sports center of Dusseldorf, Gionis and the federal coach Kostas Vatsaklis were lucky enough to be invited to a closed training session of the Germans, in the sense that apart from the athletes who make up their Olympic men’s team and their own internationals, few of the other Countries. With perfect conditions in the room, with tables and balls, which will be used in the Olympic Games and perfect organization, Gionis has been doing double and triple training since the beginning of the week with the main Germans Bol, Ovcharov, Qiu Dang, Franziska and even Fanbo, Steger and Meissner. The Japanese Ueda also trains there, the coaches are six together with the Greek (headed by Roskopf, the German men’s federation), while the Chinese former world champion Hao Shui is also sparring!

Today the last training sessions are actually taking place, tomorrow there is recovery and maybe some athletics or even serving, while during the days there were also many friendly matches where Gionis showed in very good condition. From the German city, the duo will go the day after tomorrow, Monday 15/07, to the also wonderful Brodby sports center for new one-week training sessions with Olympians athletes. In Denmark he will also be followed by the athlete of our national men’s team Konstantinos Konstantinopoulos, who took over as training assistant and also physiotherapist of Gionis in the Olympic Games