It will be hard to find anyone at the Idroscolo Regatta Course in more disbelief than Stefanos Dimopoulos.
When Dimopoulos wakes up after a night of celebrations in Milan, Italy, he will believe his silver medal was all a dream. But it wasn’t.
Dimopoulos achieved something that no other Greek paddler had ever done before in Canoe Sprint.
For the first time in Greece’s history in the sport, Dimopoulos had secured a spot on the podium at the International Canoe Federation Canoe Sprint World Championships.
Click here for startlists and live results in Milan
While Olympic champion Martin Fuksa of Czechia powered clear for a dominant victory in the men’s canoe single 1000m final, Hungary’s Balazs Adolf, Romania’s Catalin Chirila, Spain’s Pablo Crespo, Poland’s Wiktor Glazunow and Moldova’s Serghei Tarnovschi were among those fighting for the other podium places along with Dimopoulos.
Dimopoulos produced a gutsy performance, crossing the finish line in 3:47.92 for silver as Adolf got the better of Chirila by a mere 0.16 to clinch bronze.
It was a result that left Dimopoulos in complete shock and struggling to understand where this stunning showing came from.
“It’s unbelievable for me,” said Dimopoulos.
“Never in my life could I have thought of this moment, never in my life.
“The maximum was a final A and about sixth or seventh place – that’s all.
“It’s unbelievable, I don’t know what happened. I feel like it’s a dream.
“I can’t believe it now. I need weeks, maybe months. This is my first race with a medal in my first final A.”
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Dimopoulos is right to be shocked given his past results. Before Milan, his best performance came at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Poznan with a fifth-placed finish in the men’s C1 500m.
“Last year at the World Cup in Szeged I got first in Final B and fourth place in the European Championships,” said the 27-year-old.
“This year, I was sixth in the European Championships in Racice and same in the 500m.
“Now I’m second in the world.”
Dimopoulos lives in the Greek port city of Thessaloniki and travels two hours per day to the small village of Giannitsa where he paddles alone on the Loudias River.
“All this year I have been training alone,” said Dimopoulos.
“I try to reach an elite level with no partners in training with no good conditions.
“I travel with my car about two hours every day to do training.
“I go to one river because I have the best conditions there.
“I go one hour, I do training, I stay there, I eat something, I do a second training and then I come back for two hours again.
“I do this every day, every day, every day.
“I train in a small village but we have a very, vey, very good river with the best conditions. Everything is there so it’s very good.
“The weather is very good. I try to follow some teams, sometimes the Netherlands team and for the past three or four months I have trained in the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal.”
From being left in disbelief, Dimopoulos is starting to believe and dream big as he sets his sights on the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028.
“Now I start to believe that I can go for everything, like an Olympic medal and for a podium every year,” added Dimopoulos.
“I believe it because I can do more work, more training with more support.
“It’s a first time in the history of the Greek Federation.
“They don’t believe it. It’s not possible to do this in Greece, it’s very, very hard.
“I try to fight for a medal in Los Angeles.
“First of all, I hope I am healthy, I am good, not sick and injured. After that I will do everything I can.”
Full coverage of the ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships can be viewed on the Planet Canoe YouTube channel.
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