Katerina Stefanidi, along with 24-year-old Ariadne Adamopoulou, qualified on Monday to compete in the final of the women’s pole vault at the Paris Olympic Games.
Stefanidi, the Greek Olympic champion, was among the finalists at the Rio Olympics in 2016, where she came away with a gold medal, and at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She will now compete for yet another Olympic medal in the final on August 7th at 8:00 pm (local time).
The 34-year-old Greek athlete took part in the first preliminary group and jumped 4.55 meters to qualify for the finals.
Of the two other Greeks who participated in the preliminary rounds, Eleni-Claudia Pollak did not pass the minimum height requirement and will not be competing in the final, while Ariadne Adamopoulou will have a chance to compete as one of the athletes who did not clear the 4.55-meter minimum but managed to clear the bar at 4.40 meters.
Earlier on Monday, Greece’s Polyniki Emmanouilidou qualified via the repechage round for the women’s 200 meter semi-finals.
Emmanoulidou was third in the first heat of the repechage round with a time of 22.99 seconds and had to wait for the results of the other three remaining heats to secure her qualification to the semi-finals. She will be one of 24 athletes vying for a slot in the finals on Monday night.
Stefanidi’s career in the Olympic Games and other competitions
Apart from winning the gold at Rio, Stefanidi also competed at the 2012 London and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She was the 2017 World champion and earned bronze at the 2019 World Championships.
At the European Athletics Championships, she won two gold medals (2016, 2018) and three silvers (2014, 2022, 2024). Indoors, she is a two-time World Indoor bronze medalist from 2016 and 2018 and was the 2017 European Indoor champion. She earned silver at the 2015 European Indoor Championships.
At age 15, Stefanidi became the 2005 World Under-18 champion and earned silver at the 2007 edition of these championships. The 18-year-old won bronze at the 2008 World U20 Championships.
She then placed second at the 2011 European U23 Championships and third at the 2011 Universiade. She won four Diamond League Trophies between 2016 and 2019.
Stefanidi was voted the European Women’s Athlete of the Year in 2017 and the Greek Female Athlete of the Year in 2017 and 2019. Because of her achievements, she is widely regarded as the greatest female athlete in the history of Greek sport.
She was born to athletes Georgios Stefanidis and Zoi Vareli, who competed internationally in the triple jump and sprints, respectively. Her younger sister, Georgia, is also a pole vaulter. In 2015, she married Mitchell Krier, her future coach and also a former pole vaulter. She lives in the United States.