The psychological dimension of the athlete is an important factor in both practice and competition activity. It refers to the emotional and mental dimensions of the athlete, including factors such as managing emotions, dealing with unpleasant situations, and always seeking motivation.

Katerina Stefanidi understands better than anyone the need of focusing on the goal and making decisions under “stressful” conditions. The Gold Olympic Champion and World Champion in Pole vault and Yiannis Zarotis, PhD and Sports Psychologist, join this year’s Athens Science Festival to discuss the importance of sports psychology during athletic performance.

During their informative discussion, the top Greek athlete and Mr. Zarotis conclude that sport ultimately seems to be a framework in which only the “psychologically strong” could prevail!

The participation of Katerina Stefanidi is supported by Mikroi Iroes by Stoiximan.

Katerina Stefanidi has competed as an international elite athlete for over 10 years. Since 2005 Katerina has won medals in multiple international competitions and she is the current World Outdoor (2017), European Outdoor (2018), Diamond League (2018) champion, a European Indoor champion and a two-time World Indoor Championships bronze medalist. Stefanidi has won a total of ten (10) medals in all five major international athletics championships. Because of her achievements, she is widely regarded as the greatest female athlete in the history of Greek sport. The highlight of her career to date is winning the gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Katerina also graduated from Stanford University (2012) with a BA in Human Biology, concentrating in Neuropsychology, and went on to finish her MA in Cognitive Psychology at Arizona State University. 

Mr. Yiannis Zarotis holds a license to practice Psychology as a graduate of the Department of Psychology of the Kapodestrian University of Athens, as well as a graduate of Philosophy Pedagogy &Psychology Department of Ioannina. He holds a PhD degree from the Department of Psychology of University of Athens and a master’s degree in the program “Physical Education and Sports” of Department of Physical Education of Athens with expertise in “Sports Psychology”. He collaborates with athletes and teams in the field of psychological preparation and support of sports activity, while offering psychotherapy services.

Speech title: Sports psychology and athletic perfomance || Date & time: Monday 29 March 20:30-21.20