Katerina Tsiri (born October 20, 1971 ) is a former Greek biathlete . She was the first Greek woman to take part in international biathlon competitions.
Katerina Tsiri initially went cross-country skiing and was a member of the Greek youth national team. At the age of 15 she switched to the sport of biathlon for the 1986/87 season under the impression of the first Greek biathlete Athanasios Tsakiris and his coach Kostas Kasapis , who introduced biathlon in Greece. She competed in her first international races as part of the Balkan Cup in Romania and Bulgaria, and in the summer biathlon in Bulgaria. During this time Tsiri benefited from the support of the Bulgarian world-class athlete Maria Manolowa and other members of the then very strong Bulgarian national team. At the start of the 1993/94 season , she competed in her first race in the Biathlon World Cup in Bad Gastein , where she was 109th in the individual and 111th in the sprint. Her best individual result was a 103rd place a little later in an individual in Pokljuka , whereby the 104th place in the sprint is to be rated higher in the same place, as she was able to leave two other athletes behind. In the long term, Tsiri could not prevail in the World Cup, and the desired qualifications for World Championships or Olympic Winter Games did not succeed - only Irene Glava succeeded in the 1988 Biathlon World Championships during Tsiri's active career . Nevertheless, Tsiri laid the foundations for the sport of biathlon in Greece and the visible progress that has led Greek athletes to the Olympic Games since then.
Greece