Spirited Greek sculler Zoe Fitsiou shares her rowing life

Words: Tom Ransley

PHOTOGRAPHY BENEDICT TUFNELL

Rowing is more than medals: a sentiment embodied by the Fitsiou family.

“Rowing clubs are a place to grow up. My father started rowing as a little boy – he grew up in the club and eventually became a coach, he’s still a coach. Since I was a little girl I always went with him [to the rowing club]. When I grew up I followed this path.”

Greek lightweight Zoe Fitsiou grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city. “It is smaller and very different from Athens.” The sportswoman smiles as she reels off a long list of the sports she used to play; soccer (for the school team), swimming, handball, cycling (mountain and road), running and track and field. But rowing has always been her first love.

Zoe Fitsiou and Dimitra Eleni Kontou win silver at the 2023 European Rowing Championships.

Fitsiou was coached by her father, a school gymnastics teacher and rowing coach, and has an enviable stack of club silverware to her name. After a stint on the junior national team, during which she raced at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Eton, Great Britain, she stopped due to problems at home. “I stopped as a junior but I didn't want to stop, I wanted to continue and do more and more in rowing. There were things that happened that made me stop.”