Emmanouil Karalis is the new Olympic medalist for Greece. He came in 3rd in the pole vault competition with a 5.90 meter jump on Monday night.
The great Emmanouil Karalis flew—literally and figuratively—at the Stade de France to take the bronze medal in the pole vault final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Manolo, as he is also known, has shown significant improvement in his performance since Tokyo, where he finished 4th.
Karalis easily passed the 5.80 meter mark and was just as successful in clearing the 5.85 meter vault. He then continued on with the 5.90 meters, breaking his personal record of 5.87 meters. He failed in the 5.95 meter jump and went straight for the 6.00 meter but unfortunately didn’t make it.
Early in the morning, the 24-year-old champion was eager for his second Olympics final, aiming to go even higher than he had in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he finished 4th.
Prior to the competition, Karalis pledged in an Instagram post to fight with his heart and soul.
“Today is the big day! Today I will fight with my heart and my soul! Anyway, thank you all for your support all these days! LET’S GO!” he wrote. Indeed, he is now an Olympic medalist.
The Greek athlete arrived at the 2024 Paris Olympics fresh from winning the silver medal in the pole vault competition with a personal record of 5.87 meters, which he achieved on the last day of the European Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium in Rome on June 12th.
The second Olympics for the Greek athlete
Karalis is the son of a Greek father from Pyrgos, Peloponnese and a Ugandan mother. In March, he won the bronze medal in the pole vault competition at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
The new Olympic medalist came in 3rd with a 5.85 meter jump just behind Sweden’s Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis, who successfully defended his world indoor pole vault title with a best clearance of 6.05 meters. American Sam Kendricks secured the silver medal with a 5.90 meter jump.
Karalis has been a medal winner since the age of 19. He won the silver medal at the 2019 and 2021 European Athletics U23 Championships and came in fourth place at the 2020 Summer Olympics at Tokyo, which were held from July 23rd to August 8, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Τhe 24-year-old athlete has many fans who refer to him by his nickname of Manolo in Greece. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis congratulated the promising Olympic medalist with a post on X:
“The amazing Emmanouil Karalis! He ‘flew’ tonight and reached the Olympic podium winning the bronze medal. Manolo, warm congratulations. All of Greece is proud!”
