Greece’s “Lord of the Rings” Eleftherios Petrounias and the entire Greek gymnastics team had an incredible 2017 and now have more to celebrate as they were awarded 3 of the 5 top prizes at the European Federation Awards, which announced the leading athletes for 2017.
Petrounias was crowned in two categories and the Thrakomakedon Olympiad team in another one, as Europeans' top prizes for 2017 were announced on Monday, January 15.
Eleftherios was the big winner, as he was announced "Male Gymnast of the Year", with an overwhelming majority of votes, collecting 5,277 votes and 61%, with Romania’s Marian Draguleşcu second with 2,545 votes and 29%. The Greek "Lord of the Rings" paired his prize with his dominance in the category of "Outstanding Performance of the Year" with 7,798 votes and the sweeping percentage of 87% of the total.
Petrounias, a two world champion and three times European champion in the rings, said in his statement, “I would like to extend a very big thank you to the thousands of fans who supported me and who helped me gain these these two very great prizes…in 2018 I will try to be worthy of these distinctions so that I can offer other joy to all people who show me their appreciation and love. " The Gymnastics Team for All of the Thrakomakedones Olympics won the Team of the Year prize with 1,703 votes and 58%.
Petrounias remained unbeaten throughout 2017 and topped the ranking in all five tournaments in which he took part, including the qualification round: Thessaloniki National Championships, Baku World Cup, Cluj Europeans, Paris Challenge Cup and Montreal World Championships and he swept all available titles on rings for the third year in a row!
