Greek Olympic gold medalist Anna Korakaki burst in tears on camera after failing the 10m air pistol qualifiers on the first day of the Paris Olympics.
“No need for tears, Anna Korakaki! You have made us proud numerous times,” the Hellenic Olympic Committee captioned a photo of the tearful Olympian on Facebook.
The acclaimed Greek shooter and her fellow athlete Christina Moschi were both competing in women’s 10m air pistol but none of the two managed to advance to the next level as they failed to secure a top-eight spot.
Moschi placed 29th with 569 points, while Korakaki, who had 304 points by the start of the fourth shooting round, withdrew and finished 44th.
Despite Saturday’s unlucky moment, Korakaki still has to compete in the women’s 25m air pistol.
Korakaki competing with fever at Olympics event
Speaking to Greek public broadcaster ERT, Korakaki disclosed that she fell ill with sinusitis in the hours prior to the qualifier. She felt feverish during the competition, which put a strain on her.
“This was the cherry on top. We weren’t expecting it, and it came at a very wrong timing,” she said tearing up.
“In recent months, I’ve faced various issues. We fought very much,” she added as she got all the more emotional.
“The main thing is a probem I have with my eyes, a malfunction that started to develop slowly, and we lost time investigating technical issues to try and resolve [my performance] until we discovered there was this problem,” Korakaki explained.
“We found out very close to the Olympics and we didn’t have enough time to fix it. […] I did the best I could, but because of also falling ill today, I couldn’t even finish the competition at least, even though we knew we would not reach the desired outcome,” the acclaimed athlete concluded.
The top Greek shooter is now on antibiotics to try and recover on time for her 25m air pistol Paris Olympics competition.
A high-achieving Greek athlete
Anna Korakaki, of Drama, Thrace, northern Greece, has competed since 2009. She joined the Greek national shooting team a year later.
She represented Greece at the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal in the 25m pistol shot event and a Bronze medal in the 10m air pistol shooting event.
Korakaki was the first Greek woman in her maiden appearance at an Olympics, then aged 20 years, to be a multi-Olympic medalist for Greece at the same Olympiad, a fete last achieved by a Greek Olympic athlete more than a century ago, at the 1912 Summer Olympics with Konstantinos Tsiklitiras.
