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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
It would be hard to argue against Apostolos Christou being the most surprising Olympic swimming medalist of the Paris Games thus far.
It wouldn’t have been a shocker if the Greek native, predominantly known as a pure backstroke sprinter, made his way to the podium in the men’s 100 back, which he almost did.
The 27-year-old placed 4th—matching his seed coming into the meet—in a time of 52.41, two one-hundredths shy of a medal.
In the 200 back, Christou was not in the conversation to make the final, let alone medal, as he was seeded 18th on the psych sheets and hadn’t seriously targeted the event since earlier in his career.
He had predominantly focused on the 50 and 100 back at major international meets like the World and European Championships in recent years. He won bronze in the 100 back at the 2024 Worlds in Doha, and has seven individual LC European Championship medals to his name, two in the 50 back and five in the 100 back. That tally includes double gold in the 50 and 100 back at the 2024 Euros in June, where he didn’t even race the 200 back.
In fact, the last time Christou raced the 200 at a major international meet was the 2019 World Championships, where he placed 24th. He also contested it at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, placing 24th out of 26 swimmers.
All of this is to say, there was no expectation on Christou to do anything special in the 200 back. Making it back to the semis would have been a breakthrough. But he did much more.
Entering 2024, he had only broken 1:57 once, having gone 1:56.72 in July 2022. At the 2024 Greek Championships in May, he reset his best time in 1:56.34, breaking the National Record.
In Paris, he steadily progressed through the first two rounds, advancing 7th out of the prelims in 1:57.18, and then tying for 4th in the semis in 1:56.33, another Greek Record, to move into the final with a medal within sights. He still wasn’t a favorite to land on the podium, but with one of the pre-race favorites, American Ryan Murphy, missing the top eight, things were up in the air.
In the final, Christou leaned on his sprinting prowess, taking the race by storm and leading through the 50, 100 and 150-meter turns, holding more than a one-second advantage on the field with 50 meters to go.
Coming home, only Hungary’s Hubert Kos, the 2023 world champion, was able to close the lead established by Christou, as Kos won gold in 1:54.26, while Christou held on for silver in 1:54.82, obliterating his Greek Record by 1.51 seconds.
Split Comparison
| Christou, May 2024 | Christou, Paris Semis | Christou, Paris Final |
| 26.66 | 26.86 | 26.39 |
| 55.48 (28.82) | 56.49 (29.60) | 55.14 (28.75) |
| 1:25.59 (30.11) | 1:26.83 (30.34) | 1:24.36 (29.22) |
| 1:56.34 (30.75) | 1:56.33 (29.50) | 1:54.82 (30.46) |
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Christou’s medal held extra significance for not just him, but for Greece, as it was the country’s first Olympic swimming medal in an incredible 128 years, with their only other appearances on the podium coming at the inaugural edition of the modern Olympic Games in 1896.
Christou was extremely emotional on the podium.
HISTORIC ! 👏
Apóstolos Chrístou 🇬🇷 just won the first Olympic swimming medal for Greece since 1896.
📸Getty Images / Adam Pretty#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/ZehfUSq2sY— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) August 1, 2024
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“I don’t believe it, I haven’t realized it yet,” he said, according to Greek media (via translation).
“I knew I had to go for the medal, I came in strong, and forced the position, in the end, I lost power, but I had won a lot from the first 150m. And I managed to get the medal.
“I (gave it) everything. I can’t believe it, I really wanted it. My coach (s.s. Panagiotis Velentzas) told me to go strong from the first meters and stay strong. Now the 200 will be my favorite.”
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Gutsy swim! This is what the Olympic games are all about. Congratulations Apostolos!
One of the bravest swims of the meet. Kos was too conservative and it could have cost him dearly