GREECE
The Guardian
January 20, 2021
By Helena Smith
Action brought by sailor Sofia Bekatorou likely to end patriarchal country’s taboo on discussing treatment of women
When the Olympic gold medallist Sofia Bekatorou appears before a public prosecutor on Wednesday to reveal the sexual abuse she allegedly endured at the hands of a senior sport official, all of Greece will be watching.
For the sailing champion who shot to fame in the 2004 Athens Olympics, the court proceedings will mark the official end of the fear she says has kept her silent for more than two decades. But as she paves the way for more women to speak out, she will lift the veil on a subject considered so taboo in Greece it was never previously aired in public.
“In her person I’ve encountered all those women who have been abused either verbally or physically,” said the country’s first female head of state, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, after meeting the Olympian at the presidential palace on Monday. “I hope her brave revelation will blow like a rushing wind and sweep any hypocrisy, any cover-up attempt, away.”
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