{"id":158749,"date":"2021-01-19T22:45:09","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T19:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/greek-president-praises-olympic-medalist-for-breaking-abuse-silence\/"},"modified":"2021-01-19T22:45:09","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T19:45:09","slug":"greek-president-praises-olympic-medalist-for-breaking-abuse-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/greek-president-praises-olympic-medalist-for-breaking-abuse-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"#Greek President praises Olympic medalist for breaking abuse silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Greek President praises Olympic medalist for breaking abuse silence<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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ATHENS \u2013 Greece\u2019s president praised Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou for dissolving \u201ca conspiracy of silence\u201d by reporting a historic allegation of sexual assault by a sports official.<\/p>\n

Bekatorou, who won a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics, told the Greek edition of Marie Claire last month that she had suffered the abuse in 1998 when she was 21.<\/p>\n

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, who met Bekatorou on Monday, said her courage offered hope to other women who had suffered similar abuse in their personal and professional lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope her brave revelation will blow like a rushing wind and sweep any hypocrisy, any cover up attempt away,\u201d ,\u201d Sakellaropoulou said in a statement. \u201cIt is time to end the guilt of the victims and the impunity of the perpetrators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Bekatorou has referred the case to a prosecutor, Greek law would bar any prosecution after so many years.<\/p>\n

However, since she made the allegations, other Greek athletes have also come forward and more recent cases may emerge as a result of the investigation.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Bekatorou
Bekatorou displays her gold medal during the medal ceremony of the women\u2019s double-handed 470 dinghy sailing event at the 2004 Olympic Game<\/a>s in Athens, Greece.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The comments from Sakellaropoulou echo leaders across the Greek political spectrum, from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to opposition leader Alexis Tspiras, who in a rare display of unity have all voiced support for Bekatorou.<\/p>\n

They also add to growing pressure for more accountability from sporting federation officials, with Greek Deputy Sports Minister Lefteris Avgenakis saying on Sunday the government plans a bill allowing athletes to be represented on federation boards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are determined to clean up this sector. The federation sector needs fresh oxygen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The allegation by Bekatorou, who has not publicly named the official, has also prompted the Greek sports ministry to call for an investigation.<\/p>\n

Bekatorou last week told an online conference that she did not open up about her abuse at the time, five years before the 2004 Games in Athens, fearing that it would destroy her Olympic dream and divide the Greek sailing team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYears later, having two children and thinking that other children would be in my place, I found the courage to speak up.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Greek President praises Olympic medalist for breaking abuse silence” ATHENS \u2013 Greece\u2019s president praised Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou for dissolving \u201ca conspiracy of silence\u201d by reporting a historic allegation of sexual assault by a sports official. Bekatorou, who won a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics, told the Greek edition of Marie Claire last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Sofia-Bekatorou-01.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[90020,7917,74886,70889,71895],"class_list":["post-158749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-1-19-21","tag-athletes","tag-greece","tag-olympics","tag-sexual-assaults"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}