An unimaginable challenge from Ankara occurred as the Turkish Coast Guard harassed in the open sea of Rhodes the Greek Paralympic swimmer Charalampos Taiganides, who was fulfilling his wish.
This time, as can be seen in the video, they did not harass either Coast Guard vessels or fishing boats. According to OPEN, the Turkish speedboat violated Greek territorial waters and followed the Paralympian for a few miles.
Watch the video:
Taiganides described how he experienced this unacceptable provocation by the Turks: "I was swimming, I didn't notice what was happening outside, I didn't even have the ability to understand."
"At one point we heard that a boat was coming towards us at high speed, and they themselves did not know what this boat was. When it got very close they saw that he was from the Turkish coast guard. All this time we always listen to the experts, listen to them say keep calm and do what they tell us.
"We were very worried to tell you the truth because it was coming towards us and actually entered our territorial waters. We didn't know how they would react, that was the point.
"Because we reacted very correctly and calmly, as the experts told us, my team told me 'Charalampos, keep swimming' and basically cut off two boats, I don't know what they were saying or what was happening because they told me later.
"Everything I'm telling you was what I saw on TV afterwards and what the guys on the boat told me. From there on, the boat my family was on came very close. It was Pyrros Dimas who supported me a lot in this whole project and Aphrodite Skafida."
He swam from Rhodes to Symi to fulfill his wish
Paralympian Charalampos Taiganides started on Friday morning a swim from Rhodes to the Holy Monastery of Panormitis in Symi. The athlete set himself the goal of covering 25 miles in order to deliver the gold medal he won in Mexico to Archangel Michael of Symi.
The Paralympic swimming champion started his journey to Symi shortly after 7am, while by his side were the president of the Hellenic Paralympic Committee, Giorgos Kapellakis and the gold medalist Pyrros Dimas.
Charalampos Taiganides, at the age of 41, fulfilled his wish, arriving at the Holy Monastery Taxiarchi Michael of Panormitou at 5:10PM and was received with cheers and applause from the pilgrims.
Who is Charalampos Taiganides
Charalampos Taiganides was born on March 11, 1981 in Thessaloniki and comes from the village of Polymylos in the municipality of Hellespont.
His phobia of water prompted him to take up swimming in order to overcome it. In 2003 and after he had already distinguished himself at the pan-Hellenic level, he learned that he suffers from a serious eye disease, which degenerates vision and makes the retinal nerves atrophy.
He started his career at Ethniki Kozani. In 2002 he won first place in the 50 metre backstroke setting a new pan-Hellenic record. The vision problems that plagued him the following year forced him to jump to the S13 class.
The following year he participated in the Paralympic Games, in Athens, winning first place in the 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke, and second in the 50m backstroke.
In 2006 he participated in the World Para Swimming Championships in Durban, South Africa, where he won six gold medals. The sports in which he won first place were the 200m individual medley, 200m backstroke, 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke, 400m freestyle and 50m freestyle.
In the first 4, he even broke the previous world records. In the same year, he was awarded as the best athlete with a disability by the Panhellenic Association of Sports Editors.
It is noted that at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing he was the flag bearer of the Greek delegation.
In these games he won six medals, gold in the 100m freestyle category, where he also broke the world record, gold in the 100m backstroke category, where he again set a world record, silver in the 100m butterfly category, in the 200m medley category and in the 50m freestyle, as well as bronze in the 400m freestyle.
READ MORE: MRB poll: Nearly half of Greeks worried about military confrontation with Turkey.
