Water Polo’s Golden Girls

The Olympiacos women’s polo team have won everything there is to be won over the last decade. Together with Spain’s CN Sabadell, they are true legends of the pool.

Women’s water polo is Olympiacos’ top female sports division in terms of titles won, and by a huge margin. Since 2014, they have literally won everything there is to win.

Their most outstanding achievements include three Euroleagues (2015, 2021, 2022), the Len Trophy (2014) and their three European Super Cups (2015, 2021, 2022), while they have also won 11 of the 15 Greek Championships to date, plus 6 Cups and 2 Greek Super Cups over the same period.

When, in early 1988, a group of former Olympiacos swimmers, including their subsequent captain Zinovia Karagianni, decided to found a women’s water polo department and started training with the Castella team, no one could have imagined how far this team would rise.

Especially after 1995 and their first Greek championship win, with Fontas Moudatsios coaching them, Aki Logothetis managing, and the key athletes Zinovia and Eftychia Karagianni, Dimitra Asilian, Maria Kanellopoulou, Vasso Efstratiou, Christiana Karousou, Maria Katsari, Anna Hadjigeorgaki, Christina Kostaroglou, Paulina Paterou, Sofia Moraiti, Sofia Piskitsi and Poppi Sifaki all in place.

Since the team grew fast and went from strength to strength rapidly, especially after 2010 when the Club’s amateur sections received a boost under Evangelos Marinakis and Michalis Kountouris as president of the aquatic sports section.

The phenomenal team turned every swimming pool into its own property. Big names, big moments, an Olympiacos that has learned to win everywhere and always

A “eternal” captain

We’re talking about a team that has acquired legendary status in Greece and Europe, whose red and white cap has been worn by top players from Greece and abroad, who continue to add new achievements to the Club’s already impressive list of honors.

“Olympiacos, Number One! Filio Manolioudaki, captain on and on!”, the Reds’ fans were chanting that evening, 16 May 2019, in the Piraeus pool. They were celebrating the most iconic leader in the history of Olympiacos aquatic sports, Filio Manolioudaki, the formidable Cretan who came to the port city aged just 21 in 2007 and blossomed there and would be retiring that night in fitting fashion, as a champion after her team’s final victory over Vouliagmeni.

“What a finale! With the championship in the bag, and everyone going crazy in our home pool! It is a moment I’ll treasure forever. Thanks a lot to the girls, who gave 100%. I know they wanted this championship for me, too, so I could finish my career with a bang. And I’d like to thank our people, Mr. Vangelis Marinakis and our president, Michalis Kountouris, who have always been there for us. It’s the ideal finale, the end every athlete would want to crown their career. I am proud to have played for Olympiacos, to have won everything we have won! These are the moments that stay with you. Which is why I was more anxious before this game than I ever was before a Euroleague final. I couldn’t relax with all the butterflies in my stomach,” she said tearfully in her farewell speech. Still, she didn’t leave her home team in the end, as she has stayed on to manage the team she joined in her youth—a team that has become her ‘family’ in a very real way. And she continues to celebrate new titles, the last one being the Cup in Volos.

She won everything with Olympiacos: eight championships, one Greek Cup and two European Cups, the 2015 Euroleague and the 2014 LEN Trophy. She also enjoyed a hugely successful career with the Greek national team, culminating in victory in the 2011 World Championship in Shanghai against the hosts, China (9-8). A member of the “Medals Midas”, George Morfesis’s “Golden 13”. Along with Elena Kouvdou, Christina Tsoukala, Adi Melidoni, Elektra Psouni, Kiki Liosi, Alkisti Avramidou, Alexandra Asimaki, Antigoni Roubesi, Angeliki Gerolymou, Stavroula Antonakou, Youli Lara and Eleni Goula, Filio Manolioudaki made history and won two silver medals in European Championships (in 2010 and 2012), one gold and two bronze medals in the World League (2005 in Kirishi, 2010 in San Diego, and 2012 in Hyangzhou).

And at Olympiacos, Haris Pavlidis would mold the Cretan lass into one of the top athletes of all time, and a player the fans would adore for her passion, ethos, and her impeccable leadership.

Her crowning moment with Olympiacos has to be the winning goal she scored in 2015’s Euroleague final (10-9) in Piraeus’ Papastrateion pool against CN Sabadell, who had been undefeated for three years until that game.

“Olympiacos, Number One! Filio Manolioudaki, captain on and on!”, the Reds’ fans chanted about the girl from Chania who left an indelible mark on the Club.

Alkisti Avramidou

Another great Olympiacos polo player is, of course, Alkisti Avramidou, who made history in her red and white cap.

Over a unique and intensely emotional 14-year journey, Alkisti Avramidou won everything going with her beloved Olympiacos. Two European Championships, 1 Len Trophy, 1 European Super Cup, 10 Championships and 3 Cups all told, until she finally bid competitive polo farewell. Her most unforgettable moment must be leading the women’s water polo team to the first of its four European titles at the LEN Trophy final in Florence. Selflessly playing with a fractured hand, she led the team to a 10-9 win over the hosts Firenze, with the Australian Bronwen Knox scoring the winning goal for the Piraeus team 24 seconds before the final whistle.

Nicole Eleftheriadou

Nicole Eleftheriadou was another of Olympiacos’ “golden girls”. She also made history with Olympiacos and the Greek national team in her number 4 cap. Her career really took off when she transferred to the team she loved in August 2015. Olympiacos had won the Champions League in Piraeus and Haris Pavlidis chose her to join the European champions. He believed in her talent like nobody else, and within a few months Nicole Eleftheriadou had a European Super Cup under her belt, her first title with the new team. Many more would follow. She ended her career with no fewer than 9 Greek Championships plus 5 Greek Cups, 2 European Championships, 3 European Super Cups and 1 Greek Super Cup. She provided Olympiacos with its “heavy artillery” from the perimeter. Now, she watches her old team play from the stands, beside her beloved, the basketball player Sasha Vezenkov.

Then there are the Plevritou sisters: Margarita, Vaso and Eleftheria (who is now making a name for herself in Hungary). They came down to Piraeus from Thessaloniki in 2011-12, when Margarita was 17, Eleftheria 14 and Vaso 13. They are already among the most successful sisters in the Club’s history, in any sport.

And we mustn’t forget Alexandra Asimaki, Christina Tsoukala and so many others.

Enough titles to make you… dizzy

Down the decades, and especially since 2014, Olympiacos has become the top women’s water polo team in Greece and one of the two top teams in Europe. Their great rivals, CN Sabadell, dealt them all three of their Euroleague final losses (the Spanish team has won the title seven times out of ten to date), but have been defeated twice by Olympiacos in their turn.

The women’s water polo team has distinguished itself more than any other female section at Olympiacos. In all, they have won:

• 3 European Championships (2015, 2021, 2022)
• 1 European Federation Cup (LEN Trophy) 2014
• 3 European Super Cups (2015, 2021, 2022)
• 15 Greek Championships (1995, 1998, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
• 6 Greek Cups (2018, 2020, 2021, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025)
• 2 Greek Super Cups (2020, 2024).

The finals

They also played in 13 European finals:

• 6 in the Euroleague (2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024)
• 3 in the LEN European Cup Winners’ Trophy (2008, 2014, 2018)
• 4 in the European Super Cup (2014, 2015, 2021, 2022).

After the treble in the 2020-21 season, Olympiacos became the only club in Europe to have won the league, cup and European championship in one season in both the men’s and women’s competitions.