Two athletes from the Athenian Nautical Club, based on Agios Nikolaos beach in Artemida, will represent Greece in sailing at the 4th Summer Youth Olympic Games. The Games are taking place in Dakar, Senegal, from 31 October to 13 November. Fourteen-year-old Kirké Zerva and 15-year-old Evangelos Kyriazakos are competing in windsurfing, in the under-17 category, and in July they were both crowned European champions.
The group announced the dual participation on 27 September. According to the announcement, Greece is one of the few countries to field both a boy and a girl in the sailing event, thanks to the successes of Greek athletes in this category at international competitions over the last two years. The Dakar Games are the first Olympic event to be held in Africa.
How they earned the position
Greece had one place in the girls’ competition. The Board of Directors of the Hellenic Sailing Federation unanimously awarded it to Kirké Zerva, as announced by the federation on 2 August. Subsequently, as the federation reports, the country was allocated an unexpected additional place in the boys’ event, which went to Evangelos Kyriazakos.
Both arrived there with medals. At the Techno 293 European Youth Windsurfing Championships in Sopot, Poland (18–25 July), Zerva won gold in the girls’ under-17 category, competing against 43 athletes from 16 countries. Kyriazakos won gold in the boys’ category of the same age group, competing against 56 athletes from 17 countries. In April, Zerva had won silver at the World Championships in Turkey.
Zerva took up windsurfing in August 2020, at the club’s summer camp, and subsequently joined the competitive team. In 2025, she finished fourth at the European Championships in Rome in the under-15 category, and fourth at the World Championships in Wales in the under-17 category. Kyriazakos already has an impressive track record: gold at the 2024 World Championships in Hungary, silver at the 2024 European Championships held at Artemida, gold in the under-15s at the 2025 European Championships in Rome and bronze at the 2025 World Championships in Wales.
A year of medals for the club
This year has been one of the best for the club’s competitive team. In Sopot, its athletes won a total of three gold and one bronze medals. Apart from Zerva and Kyriazakos, Panagiotis Ioannou won gold in the under-19s and Antigone Maniki won bronze in the girls’ under-13s. In April, the club had brought home six medals from the World Championships in Turkey, and in February, nine of its athletes were selected for the National Youth Windsurfing Team.
In its statement, the club thanks the coaches, the fitness coach, the medical team and the families of the two athletes, and notes that no one reaches the top on their own.
Source: Athenian Nautical Club, announcements dated 27 September 2026, 2 August 2026 and 28 July 2026.
