Aghi Kassoumi

Aghi Kassoumi, the well-known Greek champion and a National Coach of the Greek Shooting Federation, is joining the fight against COVID-19: she offers her official attire from the 2004 Olympic Games team to be auctionedin order to contribute into finding a cure! She explains how this is possible.

Indeed, an official attire of the National Olympic team can compete in its own right!

I decided to offer my signed outfit from the official 2004 Olympic Games National Team attire, to be auctioned as part of the project #ziseathlitika by the Deputy minister of Sports,in the fight against COVID-19; in 2004, I celebrated my 6th participation in an Olympic Games event. 

I believe it is not only an honor but also a duty for any distinguished athlete to contribute in any way he/she can to his/her country and to society. Especially on this occasion, it is the least I could do… The way the Greek people reacted in this unprecedented situation we are all experiencing, is truly inspiring.

Donating something very dear and symbolic to me to this common cause can only make me happy, proud and optimistic that together we can all make adifference.

Many people ask me how I started practicing in shooting. 

It was running in my veins… you could say it was difficult to avoid it! My father, who was an Army General, was a distinguished sport shooter, as well. Just like me, he was also a national champion in pistol shooting, a member of the Greek National Team and even participated in the Olympic Games of Rome, in 1960. 

So, one day, when I was ten years old, he took me to the shooting range to try shooting for the first time. That was it: it was love at first shot!

I would say I had never thought I would pursuea top-class sport path! From my point of view, I was just doing something I liked a lot and apparently, I was quite good at it.

For 40 years, I was a National Champion, winning 6 medals in World Cups, 2 medals in European competitions and 2 medals in Mediterranean competitions. 

What can I say about it? This is my whole life.

A life with many happy moments, its share of hardships and challenges, surely exciting and unique; definitely a life I wouldn’t have without a total of 6 participations in Olympic Games.

Each one of my participations in the Olympic Games, from Los Angeles in 1984 to Athens in 2004, was a completely different experience. In any case, participating in the Olympic Games is a life experience on its own!

When many young people ask me how was my life and if they should pursue a high-performance sports career, I always tell them that if they want to live such life, then they have to know it is very hard, it is not suited toeveryone. However , on the other hand, it is not the only way to lead a beautiful life.

The way I saw my life as a champion, sums up into a continuous effort to become a better athlete, a better sportswoman, a better person.

If you ask me what is the one thing that giv esyou strength and what is the one thing that makes you want to get a bull’s eye every single time, I could simply tell you that in my life, I was blessed enough to do something I loved. And this would be my advice to all young people and to my athletes, now that I am a coach: in your life, do the things that you love, pursue the career that you love, the hobbies that you love, the things that make you happy and make you feel complete.

The motto that describes me as an individual is the same thing that I teach my children: “Make the best out of every difficulty in my life, out of every misfortune”. Of course, I don’tparticularly  like hard moments but when they come, this is how I try to deal with them. A real life champion is the person who will not give up when faced with hardships. It is the person, who will keep fighting every single day. 

More infos: 
http://www.agishooting.com/ index.php/el/aghi-kassoumi/ press-el