Down by the Water

The first was a top long-distance swimming champion, a marathon runner and a female Spyros Gianniotis, while the second was the Greeks “Madame Butterfly” of the pool—a nod to her favorite competition. Both are the top swimmers, by far, in Olympiacos’ history, with 43 gold medals in national tournaments and major distinctions abroad. Quite rightly, they’re also considered the best of all time in Greek swimming.

Dara counts 26 first-place finishes in national championships, as does Katia Sarakatsani, putting them behind only Mariana Liberta, Nora Drakou and Tonia Machaira, while Eli Roussaki counts 17 golds in national competitions.

It’s possible that if Dara had an advanced knowledge of medicine and nutrition, which she subsequently studied and applied, she may have reached an even higher level of competitive swimming.

She swam for Olympiacos for 17 consecutive years, from 1974 to 1991, during which time she celebrated winning the championship 16 times, with the only loss being the 1987 title to PAOK Thessaloniki.

Ahead of their time

“You were born in the wrong era and in the wrong country,” was something she heard many times when competing abroad, given how outstanding her physical abilities and dynamism were. An ambitious athlete, she often competed even when injured.

In the mid-1970s, expertise and information about the best preparation for competitions, as well as the rehabilitation of athletes after them, was almost non-existent, especially in Greece. As a result, many talented athletes failed to fulfil their potential.

Her father, the late Vasilis Daras, essentially tossed her into the sea at the age of three—tied to a rescue line, of course—, and then into the Zappeion natatorium, which was the “temple” of Greek competitive swimming for decades. He had already “launched” her older siblings Katia and Christos, too, but with one unbreakable rule: “your lessons and studies come first.”

The elder Daras was a passionate Olympiacos fan and the co-author of a book with Sofia entitled “Female Athlete and Scientist.

Sofia, for her part, was destined to wear the red-and-white cap, even though she experienced a brief fall-out with the Club’s then swimming administration, resulting in her transferring Ethnikos, also in Piraeus, for a while. However, she gave her soul to Olympiacos, having shone at the national championship in Kalamata after competing in the World Championship in Ecuador. At the latter, she finished in 10th place, while already in her first year of medical school.

It’s noteworthy that more than four decades have now passed since 1981 when, in Split in the former Yugoslavia, Sofia Dara became the first Greek female swimmer to qualify for a European Championship final. She dived into the pool for the 800-meter freestyle event, finishing eighth.

Nevertheless, the first Greek female athlete to vie for gold at a European championship was Eli Roussaki, who finished fourth in 1987 in Strasbourg, where she competed in the 200-meter butterfly stroke.

With numerous Balkan Games victories under her belt, as well as a gold medal at the Mediterranean Games in 1983 in Casablanca, Dara was named the top Greek athlete of the year for two consecutive years (1976, 1977).

An early departure

When she was a little girl, swimming day and night at the Zappeio and covering endless kilometers, others would tell her father not to let her swim freestyle, as she was so good she left the other competitors so far behind, it affected them… adversely.

Sofia Dara was lucky to have, besides her father, the noted coach Makis Haritos at her side. As fate would have it, at the age of 21, she was forced to stop swimming due to chronic injuries.

“I had to put food on the table; I came from a poor family. Those years were hard, but I never regretted it, I was never pressured. I really liked what I was doing. I stopped because there was a condition set in my family: your education above all,” she said in an interview published in the Greek swimming federation’s online magazine, explaining why she left the pool so early.

“I was three years old when they gave me a buoyancy aid and threw me into the water, and I still haven’t come out! My love for swimming was compulsive. On Sundays, the swimming pool at Zappeio was closed, so I’d jump the railing to get in; the security guards used to call the police.
“I wanted to train, so I couldn’t really exist outside the water. It’s been so many years since I stopped, but I still get love from people every day. I’m content—everyone pats me on the back and congratulates me on what I achieved in the sport. Swimming may have been my passion, but I swam at the wrong time and probably in the wrong events. Back then, there wasn’t the support male and female athletes have today; we only had a swimming pool, that’s it. Abroad, they would see me and say, ‘This kid was born in the wrong country’,” she remembers.

At the 1980 Moscow Olympics, she was included on the national team at the last minute (she was 17 years old at the time) and finished in 10th place, one of the best performances of the entire Greek delegation across all events. She followed up with an 8th place showing at the World Championship that followed, and four medals—one gold and three silver—at the Mediterranean Games in Casablanca in 1983. At the latter, she posted a tremendous race record of 4.16.00 in the 400-meter freestyle, which was the sixth best time in the world that year, behind American and East German swimmers.

It was after the Los Angeles Games in 1984 that she decided to retire at the young age of 21 and to devote herself to her medical studies. Afterwards, she remained close to swimming, helping athletes with their diet and nutrition.

Her father, the late Vasilis Daras, essentially tossed her into the sea at the age of three, tied to a rescue line, of course

The successor

The “Madame Butterfly” of Greek swimming, Eli Roussaki, was not just a charismatic personality, but a formidable swimmer who united the older and younger generations and is rightly considered Sofia Dara’s successor.

Her performances, and her successes in particular, were unreal for the time—she took 4th place at the European Championships in Strasbourg in 1987 and 6th place a year earlier, in 1986, at the World Championships in Madrid!

One has to bear in mind that she was competing against, among others, women from the East German team, who were eventually proven to have benefitted from an organized state-run doping program (and not only in swimming).

At the same time, she was lucky enough to be part of a huge club, Olympiacos, as well as being trained by great coaches, especially educator Makis Haritos, along with the local swimming world’s “eternal youth”, Dimitris Karydis. She was his prodigy, and he took her to another level. She also gave up her dream of going to America and taking up a university scholarship there so she could stay with her coach, as she believed she could only win with Karydis in her corner. And win she did.

It was also crucial that she never felt pressured, either by her parents or her coaches, especially in the early years, perhaps because her sister Sofia, who was three years older, was the one who entered the pool first.

Her father did not want her to compete in the butterfly at such a young age, because it was the most difficult style, but after the age of 14, Roussaki established herself among the very top butterfly swimmers, especially in the 200 meters. With Olympiacos, she won numerous titles, but she also became part of a great team, creating lifelong relationships in a Club that was born a champion, just as she was.

On the national team, she was often the only woman included in a generation of swimmers in which Charalambos Papanikolaou and Chris L. Stevenson stood out. Roussaki swam for Olympiacos for 17 consecutive years, from 1974 to 1991, during which time she celebrated 16 championship wins, the only loss being the 1987 title to PAOK Thessaloniki.