Evangelia Platanioti secured the gold medal in the technical program of solo artistic swimming at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, today.
The 30-year-old athlete claimed the gold at the 21st World Aquatics Championships, amassing 272.9633 points in the final of the solo technical program.
Her main rivals increased the difficulty of their routines, yet they couldn’t surpass her. Vasiliki Alexandri, another Greek-born swimmer representing Austria and finishing second last year in Fukuoka, slipped to sixth place, losing ground in one exercise.
The silver medal went to Canada’s Jacqueline Simoneau with 269.2767 points, while the bronze was claimed by China’s Huiyan Su with 262.3700 points.
Following her two bronze medals at the 2022 World Championships, Platanioti captivated everyone in Doha with a tremendous performance securing the first-ever gold medal in this discipline for Greece.
The Greek champion couldn’t hold back her tears as she stepped onto the victors’ podium during the medal ceremony, expressing her joy with a radiant smile during the national anthem’s rendition.
The gold medal for Platanioti is Greece’s fifth in the World Aquatics Championships and the first since 2013 when long-distance open water swimmer Spyros Gianniotis celebrated his second consecutive victory in the 10km.
In total, it is Greece’s 19th medal in the history of the competition and the third in artistic swimming, with Platanioti having also won the other two medals, in 2022 in Budapest (both bronze).
