Hellenic Weightlifting Federation
Christos Iakovou was born on April 12, in Constantinople. In 1964 persecuted by the Turks, he arrives in Athens and in the same year he becomes the Greek champion with the colors of Panathinaikos to which he belongs by lifting 296 k in the 75 kilo category. In 1967, in Athens, he achieves the Worldwide Cadets Record in develope (category 75k) with 136.5 kilos. In 1968 he breaks the World Record with 139k once again, in meetings which the World Federation in London organizes. Shortly after the World Championships in 1979, which has been organized by the Greek Weightlifting Federation in Thessaloniki, Christos Iakovou leaves for the USA with his wife Eleni with the intention of staying there permanently. He takes over the coaching of the Weightlifting team of the Miami police, but he doesn’t stay there for long. After a beautiful wandering during which he shoes his business talent, he comes to Greece in 1988 for vacation and stays forever. When asked by the then president of the Federation and present Prefect of Athens John Sgouros whether he would remain to take on the difficult task of upgrading the sport he had a ready answer: “Throughout my life, as an athlete, I had always envied the Soviet Union and Bulgaria for the teams they had created. My vision was to create such a team. I knew it wasn’t easy. Nothing happens from one day to the next. However, the athletes had talent and zeal. With Yiannis Sgouros and the Federations’ help we started the program. We trained hard two to three times a day. We set goals with our chief one being to excel in the Olympic Games in 1996” revealed proudly after the triumph of the Greek colors in Atlanta”.