Greece’s Stergios Bilas celebrated a gold medal in the 50m butterfly at the European Men’s Championship in Belgrade on Tuesday, June 18.
The 23-year-old swimmer, after the triumph of Apostolos Papastamos in the 400m medley, made history by winning his first individual gold at the men’s level.
Bilas was a little off his prelim effort of 23.06, but still managed to get to the wall first for gold in the men’s 50 butterfly (23.15). He out-touched Simon Bucher by just four-hundredths of a second (23.19).
Stergios Bilas rise to the top
Stergios Marios Bilas, born in November 2001, is a swimmer and a member of the Greek National Team. Alongside his athletic career, he is a student at the University of Piraeus, majoring in Finance and Banking Administration. He comes from Chalkida and competes for the Olympiacos Piraeus swimming club.
Bilas is an athlete with significant achievements, inspiring optimism for the future of Greek swimming. He competes in the 50-meter Freestyle, 50-meter Butterfly and the Mixed Free Relay (men and women) in the 4×100 meters. He has achieved significant distinctions at national and international levels.
In particular, he has won 16 gold, 11 silver, and 9 bronze medals in Greek national championships.
His most significant achievement until Tuesday, which also earned him qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, was the two gold medals he won in August 2023 at the European Championship K23 in the 50m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly, breaking the Greek men’s record.
Greece leads the medals table with two gold medals
After Day 2 of the European Aquatics Championship, Greece leads the medals table with two golds.
On Monday Apostolos Papastamos won a historic gold medal as he became the first swimmer for Greece to win the 400m individual medley.
The 2019 World and European Junior champion, went from third at the end of the butterfly leg to first after the backstroke in which he split 1:04.44 to lead Balasz Hollo of Hungary by 0.82secs at the halfway stage.
Papastamos extended his lead on the breaststroke to 2.61secs over Gabor Zombori and although the Hungarian pair ate into the deficit on the freestyle, the Greek won in a national record of 4:10.83.
With that, the 23-year-old booked a place at his second Olympics in Paris, three years after making his debut in Tokyo.
Hailing from the island of Crete, Papastamos said: “It is amazing to do it for Greece, for young swimmers in Greece so I hope to be an inspiration for all of them.”
The European Aquatics Championships is organized by LEN—the governing body for aquatics in Europe. The Championships are currently held every two years (in even years); and since 2022, they have included 5 aquatics disciplines: Swimming (long course/50m pool), Diving, Synchronized swimming, Open water swimming and High diving.