Styliani-Alexandra Michailidou

Happy birthday to Greece’s sprinter Stella Michailidou, who was in the fastest women’s 100m final her country has ever staged, three weeks ago.

On 25 July at the Panthessaliko Stadium in Volos, Stella made the final of the Greek 100m championship and finished sixth, having run 11.52 in her heat. The race she was in is one Greek athletics will be talking about for years: **Rafaela Spanoudaki and Polyniki Emmanouilidou dead-heated for the title in 11.37**, sharing the gold. To be in that final at all, in the deepest era Greek women’s sprinting has ever had, is a credential.

She has been in that company for a while. Stella has raced the **senior Greek 4x100m relay alongside Spanoudaki, Artemis-Melina Anastasiou and Elisavet Pesiridou**, with a relay best of 44.23, and she is a Greek national champion. Her personal best over 100m is 11.72, and indoors this season she ran 7.52 over 60m, fifth on the Greek list.

The relay part is the part worth dwelling on. Greece has spent the last few years assembling one of the better sprint groups in Europe, and the four places on that team are among the hardest to hold anywhere on the continent. Being one of the athletes trusted to carry a baton in that company means the coaching staff has decided you will not lose them the race.

She races for AO Hermis under Kostas Vogiatzakis, is based in Athens, and holds a physiotherapy-assistant diploma from IEK AKMI — which means the sprinter also knows how to put a body back together.

Χρόνια πολλά, Στέλλα! Και να τα εκατοστίσεις, με υγεία, χαρά και ακόμα πιο γρήγορα εκατοστά. Όπα! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇬🇷