Dedication, love, passion, worship and an Olympiacos soul. This is how one could best describe the most iconic player in the history of Olympiacos’ women’s volleyball, Stella Christodoulou.
She transferred to the team at the age of 20 and became its leader. During her tenure she won eight championships and eight Greek Cups and, of course, the European trophy, one of the most important in the department’s history.
Christodoulou, over the 12 years that she wore the red-and-white uniform, participated in 17 of the 18 trophies that the team won during this period.
During her tenure she won eight championships and eight Greek Cups and, of course, the European trophy
She was born a champion, as she has a “sports DNA”, as the daughter of Christos Christodoulou and a niece of Fanis Christodoulou, two brothers who wrote their own history in Greek basketball, primarily at Panionios. Both brothers, in fact, won a basketball Cup with Panionios in 1991 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium against PAOK, while 27 years almost to the day Stella celebrated with Olympiacos its sole European title in Greek women’s volleyball.
Having taken her first steps in the academies of the Enosis Vyronas team, which she joined in 2000 at the age of nine, followed by three years with Panellinios (2007-2010), she found herself very close to Panathinaikos in the summer of 2010.
However, an arbitration body known as the Supreme Council for the Resolution of Sports Disputes did not approve of the transfer, resulting in her staying off the court for a year. She arrived at Olympiacos in the summer of 2011, beginning a tremendous career at the Club and helping to make it dominant in women’s volleyball.
She soon emerged as the top passer or libero in Greek volleyball, establishing herself at Olympiacos and the national team. Until her departure (she now plays with Thira and fate brought her against the team of her heart in the city of Kozani for the Cup the semi-finals), the captain of the Reds was named MVP dozens of times in several competitions and was also the most valuable player of the first division championship two years in a row.
Olympiacos honored her upon her return (as an opponent) to Melina Mercouri Indoor Arena, while her farewell from the Piraeus Club came with a touching announcement.
“August 23, 2011: A mere date then for Olympiacos. However, 12 years later, this date will remain indelibly engraved in the history of the Legend’s Women’s Volleyball Team. It was the day that Stella Christodoulou officially wore the red and white jersey for the first time. Twenty years old at the time, with her entire future ahead of her, Stella moved to the big port. Neither she nor anyone else could imagine what would follow: Eight championships, eight Cups, one European: the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup.”
All total, 17 trophies, out of Olympiacos’ total of 18 in the women’s volleyball division. Stella Christodoulou achieved… everything at Olympiacos. She honored the club and the captain’s armband; she also gave her soul on the courts. An emblematic captain, an extraordinary person with dignity, Stell, completed her successful tenure at the Legend.
“Until we meet again!” was the characteristic phrase in Olympiacos’ farewell announcement, and it is true that few athletes in the history of this glorious club have received a similar send off.
The arrival of Giota
Stella Christodoulou went to another level with the best coach that the Olympiacos women’s volleyball team has ever had, Branko Kovacevic, who is returning to the team for the new season. Of course, in a charismatic generation of players, great athletes also coexisted alongside Stella Christodoulou, achieving perfect chemistry. Among the best examples is Katerina Giota, born in St. Petersburg, Russia, who came to the northern city of Grevena with her mother at the age of 12 and received Greek citizenship. She was leaning more towards swimming but was discovered by her coach, Giorgos Memtsas, who convinced her to play volleyball.
Olympiacos had made three attempts to acquire the top player of Iraklis Kifissia at the time and succeeded in 2013. Of course, the first thing she learned with her new team was that she had to change her jersey number, as she wore the “forbidden’ (for Olympiacos) number “13” until then. With Olympiacos until 2020, she won all the titles in domestic competitions (seven championships and six Cups) and, of course, the 2018 Challenge Cup.
In January 2021 due to the pandemic, the domestic league was interrupted and there was uncertainty as to when and if it would continue, so Olympiacos, respecting the players’ need to make a livelihood, allowed those who wanted to continue the season in teams outside of Greece. Giota transferred to Vasas of Budapest, where she filled the gap for the injured Melani Ambrosio. In May 2021 she returned to Piraeus along with Stella Christodoulou and Saskia Hippe, who had also departed for the same reasons. As of May 2023, when she left, she won 14 trophies in 10 years in the red and white. She next headed to AEK Athens and finally returned to Iraklis Kifissia.
The daughter of Christos Christodoulou, a pro basketball player, and the niece of the Fanis Christodoulou, a basketball star in the late 1980s and 1990s, Stella was born with tried-and-tested athletic “DNA”.
The current team captain
The third well-known player of this group is the current team captain from Preveza, Tzina (Georgia) Lamprousi.
Initially, in 2002, she was active in competitive aerobics (a combination of gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics exercises set to music) and was even a member of the national team. However, she had to give up the sport due to her growing height and with the guidance of her coaches at a special high school she was attending. She started playing volleyball at Iraklis Kifissia, from where she joined Olympiacos in the summer of 2013. What followed were seven championships, eight Cups and the Challenger Cup with the Reds.
Another stellar member of this charismatic Olympiacos team is Areti Konomi, who upon leaving in April 2022 had recorded eight championships and seven Cups with Olympiacos and, of course, the European Championship.
A storied history
The Club’s women’s volleyball division has a long history, as in 1930 and after the establishment of the football, water polo, track and field, swimming, volleyball, fencing and rowing divisions, the Olympiacos administration, under the presidency of Thanasis Mermigas, decided to establish a women’s volleyball team.
The team was re-established in the summer of 1947 when the then president of Olympiacos, Michalis Manouskos, fulfilled a request of the athletes of the women’s basketball team of Olympiacos Deligiannis, E. Nerantzi, M. Nerantzi, Hasapaki, Leonidaki, Damigou, Efstratiadou and Zante, who wanted to participate in a re-established women’s volleyball section.
The Club, in fact, hired renowned Hungarian coach Otto Scymiczek, a longtime resident in Greece, who also trained the women’s basketball team at the time. The re-established women’s volleyball team won the Piraeus championship in 1948.
However, the women’s volleyball division was again disbanded, and only re-emerged decades later. The crucial issue of a home court was also finally resolved (for the men’s team as well) shortly after the team’s promotion to the first division in 2006, when businessman Evangelos Marinakis (the current president of Olympiacos FC) proceeded to renovate the Melina Mercouri Arena in the Rentis district, making it the exclusive home of volleyball, and thus solving the long-standing problem of a permanent home for the volleyball teams.
A meteoric rise
Since 2010, when Marinakis took over Olympiacos, together with the president of the amateur clubs, Michalis Kountouris, Olympiacos’ women’s volleyball – along with the other divisions – was elevated to another, higher level.
After a first title came (during the 2011 Cup final with a 3-2 victory over AEK Athens, held on Samos), the celebrations have not ceased in Piraeus. Over the next “golden” eight-year period (2012-20) the women’s volleyball team won 8 consecutive championships (a record), 7 consecutive doubles (a record) and 9 consecutive Cups (a record). In total they have 8 championships, 11 Cups and 1 Super Cup, and of course, the European title. The Challenger Cup in 2018 was achieved with a tremendous semi-final win against the favorites, Russia’s mighty Dynamo Krasnodar, whom they narrowly beat in Piraeus 3-2, followed by one best games in Olympiacos history: a 3-0 win in Russia in the second leg.
In the two-game final against the defending champion Bursa Büyükşehir Belediyespor, and despite a 3-2 defeat at Rentis, the Olympiacos players overcame a 0-1 set opening to finally win the match with 3-1 sets, winning the first (and only as of today) European trophy by any Greek women’s club.
In fact, the two clubs had also met in the 2017 final, with the Turkish team then winning the matchup.
