The Greek Olympic Committee has a new chairman from yesterday. This is the president of the Athenian Stock Exchange Spiros Kapralos. He won with 18 to 11 votes against the other candidate Minos Kiriakou, who was the chairman until now and is the owner of the TV Antenna. “Greek sport is in a difficult stage. Our immediate goals are to play good in the Olympic Games in Vancouver, in London and also in the Mediterranean Games in Peskara,” said in his first speech in front of his colleagues Spiros Kapralos.

He stressed that he will pay great attention to the scientific support of the sportsmen and women so that the doping phenomenon is left in the past, because in the last few years it became hardship for the Greek sport. Regarding financing sports, the new president of the Olympic Committee said that he will work hard to attract private capitals in the Olympic movement so that together with the governmental support they can create excellent conditions for training.

In Greece, which is the home country of the Olympic idea, chairmanship of the national committee is a very prestige position. During all those years, the position was passed through kings, heiress to the crown, members of the royal family, and Prime Ministers. In this year’s competition for this position, besides Kapralos and Kiriakou there was another candidate – Isidros Kouvelos, president of the horse riding federation and husband of the foreign minister Dora Bakoyanni. Days before the vote though, he withdrew his candidature. It was not hard for Spiros Kapralos to win over Minos Kiriakou, whose presidency will be remembered with embarrassing cases like the use of doping by Greek sportsmen and the rude censoring of the Tibetan protests during the ceremony of firing and delivering the Olympic fire in Beijing.