Emmanouil Karalis

Emmanouil Karalis is an Olympic medalist pole vaulter and one of the world’s leading pole vault athletes. He was born in Athens in 1999 and has been involved in athletics since 2012. In 2016, he broke the world junior record three times and was named the Best European Young Athlete of the Year by the European National Olympic Committee. In 2018, at the Panhellenic Indoor Athletics Championships held at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Greece, he set a new world record for teenagers (U20) and became the first Greek athlete to set world records in two categories (youth and juniors). In 2024, he won his first Olympic medal in the Paris Olympics. He has won medals in all major athletic competitions and has been named Top Athlete of the Year at the annual PSAT (Panhellenic Association of Sports Press) awards ceremony, while also being nominated as a finalist for the World Athletics Fair Play Award. In 2025, he ranked fourth in the all-time list of best performances in the sport, second in world ranking in men’s pole vault, seventh worldwide among all athletes in all sports, and first among Southeastern European athletes. He was included in the Forbes Greece 30 Under 30 list for 2025.