Spyridon Gianniotis

Spyridon " Spyros " Gianniotis (Greek Σπυρίδων " Σπύρος " Γιαννιώτης, born February 19, 1980 in Liverpool) is a Greek swimmer. He won the world title in the 10-kilometer open water swimming at the World Swimming Championships 2011 in Shanghai.

Born as the son of an English mother in Liverpool Gianniotis had as the first swimming club in his youth, the Nautical Club in Kerkyra Corfu Town.

Olympic participation

After qualifying for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney he reached the 400 m freestyle and 20 m freestyle over 1500 the 21th Place. The Greek 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay was 15th with him

At the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 he reached the finals in each case the same individual disciplines and was about 400 meters seventh ( 3:48.77 ) and 1500 meters in fifth ( 15:03.69 ).

In Beijing finally gave in the 2008 Olympics in turn use the same tracks just for the places 24 and 12 About 10 km open water could he be placed as 16th ( 1:52:20,4 hours) in front of the field.

Spyros Gianniotis had the honor to be the first torchbearer for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

World and European Championships

With the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka in 2001 he finished seventh in the 400m freestyle in 3:52,09 minutes (winner here was the Australian Ian Thorpe in a world record time of 3:40,17 ). In the European Swimming Championships in Berlin in 2002, he was closing float the Greek squadron, the bronze medal behind Italy and Germany fought in 7:20,67.

With the World Swimming Championships in Melbourne in 2007 he won his first individual medal with bronze over 5 kilometers. A year later with the Open Water Championships in Dubrovnik, he won his first title over five kilometers. In the swimming world championships in Rome in 2009, he won over the same distance the silver medal. In the European Swimming Championships 2010 in Budapest the title in the team competition were added over 5 km and a bronze in the 5 km in singles.

By far the biggest success of his career he managed schwimmerischen 20 July 2011 at the World Swimming Championships in 2011 in the East China Sea off Shanghai, when he, 54 minutes 24.7 seconds became world champion in 1 hour. Beaten in the squares were the defending champion Thomas Lurz Würzburg ( 1:54:27,2 ) and Russia's Sergei Bolshakov. Two days later Gianniotis won his second medal in Shanghai: About 5 km in 56:17,4 he had to admit defeat to Lurz ( 56:16,6 ) and was a ahead of the Russian Yevgeny Dratzew.