Vacation? Nah.. I'm too busy doing big things.

HELLO EVERYONE,

I know it’s been a long time since I last posted something on my blog but I really had a very very busy summer. A summer that I will never forget!!

Ok, let’s pick up where we left off. The last time I posted something, I was still in France playing for the Beziers Angels. Well guess what? The 2017-2018 season ended and we were the ones who won the French Championship. I can’t explain how amazing the feeling of winning a championship final is. It wasn’t amazing only for me, but it was amazing for my teammates, my coaches, our families, and the entire city of Beziers as well. We made some people really happy since this is what they were waiting for their entire life. It was the first time that Beziers won the French Championship and that’s why we celebrated it for many days. It was a very different and challenging season for me, since I joined the team in the middle of the season, but I’m really glad I got to experience all these emotions and I definitely learned a lot about myself during my five month stay in France.

Two days after the final, I returned back to Greece and after spending two weeks with my family, I joined the national team in Portaria, where we started the first part of our preparation for the Mediterranean Games in Spain. Unfortunately, 2 weeks before the games I sprained my ankle during a morning practice and my ankle needed some time to heal. Even though, I travelled with the team and played in almost every game, I wasn’t 100% ready to help them. However, we did great in the Mediterranean Games and we won the silver medal after losing to Croatia in the final. During this tournament we beat some great teams, such as Italy, Spain, and France and that was when we realized that we can do big things in the future.

The Mediterranean Games are something like a smaller version of the Olympic Games. Almost every single sport is included in the games but only countries around or very close to the Mediterranean sea are allowed to participate and we had an opening and a closing ceremony. During the games, we stayed in a nice hotel inside a very big park in Tarragona with all the other Greek athletes. The weather was great during our stay in Spain and we really enjoyed every single second we had there. After finishing the games we went back in Greece again for the two weeks that we had off.

Are you bored yet? If you are PLEASE PLEASE PLESE just keep reading cause I still haven’t talked about the best part of my summer!!!

After the two “vacation” weeks, we went to Karpenisi to start the second part of our preparation and then to Volos to play some friendly games before the qualification of the European Championship. The final round of the European Championship was our goal from the beginning of the summer. Greece did not pass the qualification round since 2001 so it was something that everyone wanted and everyone practiced really hard for. Our pool had 4 teams: Ukraine, Montenegro, Greece, and Norway and two of them were going to qualify to the next round.

We played the first game in Volos against Montenegro the 15th of August. We played really well and we beat Montenegro 3-0. It was a very big win for us cause it was one step closer to our goal.

The next day we traveled to Norway. During the game against Norway, 20 Greeks showed up in the gym with Greek flags and shirts and were cheering for us during the whole game. It was really nice to see Greek people that live in a different country, come to the game just to watch and support their country. We beat Norway 3-0 and after the game we talked to them and took a lot of pictures all together.

The same night, after the game, we left our hotel and flew to Ukraine for our final away game of the summer. Ukraine was the favorite of our pool so it was a big game for us. Well, they say that there is no favorites and underdogs in sports, right? That’s exactly what happened that night. We played the best volleyball we’ve played all summer, we beat Ukraine 3-0 and we had almost already qualified to the European Championship.

The next day, we returned to Greece and after a very long trip (over 16 hours) we finally got to our hotel and started getting ready for the final game of the summer. We had to play Ukraine one more time but the only difference was that we already beat Ukraine once and we were playing them at home in front of our fans. That night was a big party for us. We beat Ukraine again 3-0 and we had officially qualified to the European Championship after 18 years. What a day to remember!?

And do you know what the best part of that night was? It was the fact that we made people happy. People that were waiting for this day to come for 18 years. People that love volleyball in Greece. We saw people with tears of joy in their eyes. These are the moments an athlete plays for.

And no we didn’t win a medal in the World Championship or in the Olympics and maybe we won’t do for many many years but we had people watching us from their TV’s everyday. We had people waiting for our games to start and they knew exactly the channel and the time. We had people wishing us good luck in the streets because they knew that the volleyball national team was playing in their city. We had people coming to the gym before we even started our warm-up. These are the things that make me proud of what we achieved this summer.

And when someone asks me if I went anywhere on vacation, I say nah.. I was too busy doing big things with my best friends.

Love,

Olga

PS1: My teammates rock!!!!

PS2: Currently in Poland, getting ready for a new season.