Vasiliki Millousi and Elefterios Petrounias got married last week. Last month, the couple also announced they are expecting a child.
Petrounias told Novasports that having a baby motivates him to keep competing in the next quad as well because he wants his daughter to see him compete:
“What could be the emotions of somebody expecting a baby, a girl… They’re so many and so intense, I can’t put them into words. I definitely cannot wait for her arrival and I’ll do my best to be a good dad to her. And I want to believe that she’ll push me because I’d love for my daughter to see me compete. So that’s a good reason to continue even for the next quad and the next Olympics, so that she will remember me.”
Millousi thinks that her husband’s dream to devote an Olympic medal to his daughter is quite sweet:
“That’s one of his biggest dreams – for the baby to be at the Olympics and to devote his medal to her if everything goes well. It’s very beautiful and sweet. I long to see that image because I’m living his dream right next to him. I try to be there for him and to help him in this. We are hoping that the dream will come true”.
Millousi announced her retirement during the World Championships last October. While she said before that wanting to have a baby was not her main reason for the retirement, she believes it worked out well:
“I came to terms [with my retirement] and in the best way possible with my pregnancy. But I’m always happy to be in the gym to help other athletes. With great pleasure I’ve seen that there’s a future for gymnastics and the most important thing right now is qualifying to the Olympics. I want to believe that we’ll be representing both in WAG and MAG. I do a little bit of everything. I help train kids, I help with their mentality, I want to help bring people of all ages into gymnastics. It’s not just about competing at an elite level, it’s about working out.”
Petrounias is almost recovered from the shoulder surgery he had right after the World Championships. This year, he plans to start the season with some smaller competitions, first going toAustria in August and then competing at the Paris World Cup:
“I think that two competitions will be more than enough [to prepare for Worlds], it’s not like I’ve been out for three years. It’s been 10 months so we’re going strong. I’m in really good shape at the moment I’m almost back to peak shape. We’ve been very careful, my shoulder has passed all the crash tests. We’ve rebuilt the shoulder, muscle to muscle and I’ll be better than before. It was a very tough decision because it’s very stressful for an athlete who does rings to go into surgery for his shoulder. Especially for me because the damage was proven to be way worse than what we were expecting but my surgery was performed by the world’s best. I have a very strong team surrounding me. Here in Greece my doctor, Odysseas Paxinos
is a saint, and so are my physiotherapists. I think that with my stubbornness and my experience I’ll be able to compete better than
before. For the past two years I was competing in pain and still we accomplished so much. Imagine if I’m not in pain… I’ll be able to work even better.”
Petrounias said that adrenaline helped him to withstand the pain during competitions:
The adrenaline during competitions helped a lot in managing the pain because during training sessions I couldn’t complete my routine. No
way… I can’t explain exactly what was happening but I certainly wouldn’t do it again.”
He feels like he is ready to compete not only physically but mentally as well:
“The only thing that you have to deal with after surgery if everything has gone according to plan is the mentality of an athlete of getting over the fear
of hurting. I’m already over that and I have three more months ahead of me to get ready.”
Millousi does not doubt that Petrounias will be able to recover get back to his previous level at competitions:
“Being an elite level athlete is hard… That’s the way it is. Athletes are in pain and then they can hope that they’ll be at least rewarded with a
good result.Lefteris is a warrior by himself. He likes challenges and this was one of the biggest. Getting back from surgery and setting such high goals for himself. Lefteris will go in, compete and win to medal to qualify to the Olympics. He’s very strong and he’ll certainly manage that goal.”
Translation from Greek by Evita.
