Strength to Give

Sea and Forest

I was born in Piraeus, but I grew up in Rafina, the place where I still am today. I carry so many images from those years. Our Greek town was completely different then. As kids, we were always outside on the sidewalks, playing football, tag, hide-and-seek, all those simple games. I do not think children today have that in the same way.

What I used to wait for most was summer. We would swim, play, and dive into the sea. Because Rafina is by the water, with boats leaving for Andros, Tinos, and Mykonos, we grew up close to beaches and that feeling of movement. But I also loved the forests and the mountains. I loved walking there and listening to the birds. Memories of nature from back then have always stayed in my mind.

Wheels in Motion

I remember my first bike as a kid was a BMX. Then in 2004, when I was already an adult and already a father of two, I came back to mountain biking, and from that moment I was hooked. I never stopped.

From 2004 until 2013, when I did my first triathlon, I don’t think there was a single day I didn't ride my bike. Every morning I got up at 6:00, rode for an hour and a half or two hours, then I ate and went to work. I loved that routine. I still do.

I run a gym in Rafina together with my wife, Anthi Kalabogia. We have two children. My son is Yiannis and my daughter is Margarita. Through the gym, through training, through the way I live, I believe I have helped a lot of Greeks get involved in triathlons. That matters to me. In 2021, I did my certification in Davos to become an XTERRA coach because I wanted to feel stronger in my knowledge, and I wanted what I pass on to other people to have real education and safety behind it.

Finding It

As a kid, I loved football, but I didn't love running. A friend told me about a race and said, ‘Listen, I found something for you. It has swimming in a lake, mountain biking, and running too.’ He was talking about Lake Plastira. The moment I heard that, I found it very interesting. In 2012, when I learned there was going to be an off-road triathlon there for the first time in Greece, I thought, ‘This is great, I have to start running.’

I already knew the bike. That part was mine. But swimming was different. What I thought I knew about swimming had nothing to do with actual competitive swimming. So I started improving there, and little by little I started running too. Along the way, I really came to love it. I still do.

Step Forward

My parents were very hardworking people. My father is retired now. He spends his time in the garden, working with wood, doing things with his hands. I think I get something from that world too. I was always trying to work, always trying to stand on my own feet, to have my own money, to be independent.

My mother is no longer alive. She passed away four years ago, very young. This was the hardest time in my life. 

At the same time, I was preparing for an extreme triathlon that I had signed up for a year earlier. I lost my mother only a few months before, which made the whole experience much harder. There are moments in life when you have to keep going even when something inside you has been broken. That was one of those moments for me.

I think that is part of why I am the way I am. When something difficult comes, I step forward. I do not back away from it.

Maui

I was the first Greek athlete to take part in the XTERRA World Championship. I had only started triathlon shortly before the race at Lake Plastira. It hadn't even been a full year. I was very strong on the bike, and I finished fourth in my age group. One of the qualifying spots wasn’t taken from the top three, so the slot for Maui came to me.

When I heard I could go, and to be part of an event with the best athletes in the world, I looked at it with great interest together with my wife, and that is how we went to Maui.

What impressed me most was everything around it. The scale of the event. The athletes. The bikes. The equipment. The welcome they gave me. There were so many people there, and for me it was something deeply emotional. I will never forget it.

I also made three more World Championship memories in Italy. Trentino is a very beautiful place, especially the bike section, which I love very much. The terrain is different, but that’s part of what makes off-road triathlon special. Every course gives you different images, different feelings, different contact with nature. That’s the magic of it for me. I don’t think road triathlon can offer that in the same way.

Building Trails

These days, I’m involved as the technical director for XTERRA Greece Vouliagmeni, and I also carry that coaching background with me. I don’t want this lifestyle to be only about events or titles. What matters to me is the experience people have.

Because I am hardworking, and because I have the knowledge and the tools that have to do with the mountain, I started building trails a few years ago. Little by little, that became one more way of giving back. When I’m out there cleaning a course, I feel like I’m doing a race too. It’s tiring work and it carries a lot of responsibility, but I enjoy it.

While I’m building a trail, I imagine how I would come through with speed on the bike, how it would flow into a technical section, how the athlete will feel, whether they will enjoy it, whether they will leave with a good memory. That matters to me. I want people to have a good experience. I want them to leave full.

Family Fullness

Our gym is turning 30 years old, just like XTERRA, and I love that connection. Before this, I had a kickboxing club, and I had that place for five years. In the last two of those years, Anthi came to work on strength training because we had weight machines there. That’s how we met.

Anthi was involved in contemporary dance. After we met, we also did aerobics seminars. She got deeply involved in aerobics, even competitively. We worked with both children and adults. For the last fifteen years or so, she has focused on Pilates, and she’s very good at it.

I feel very full when I think about family. I can say I’ve succeeded in that part of life. Through many things, good and bad, we’re together. There’s support. There’s love. That’s not a small thing.

Power To Believe

I am getting older. Today, as I share this, I’m 54. But as long as I keep doing what I do, I stay strong. I want to keep that strength. I want to be on the front line. I want aging athletes to see that strength is still possible.

Honestly, I think triathlon is like medicine. It lifts your mood. It makes you stronger. It makes you healthier. 

They call me “the beast.” My friends look at me and say they can’t believe what they’re seeing. Maybe some of that comes from the gym, maybe some of it comes from my father’s genes, from the way I’m built, from the life I’ve lived. But for me, the key is belief. You have to believe in what you want, love it, and work for it.