During these days of major athletic events, we all celebrate the medals brought home to Greece by athletes competing with our national coat of arms, and there is an outpouring of pride in the tweets of politicians.

However, throughout the rest of the year, we turn our backs on our athletes, thanks to whom our national anthem is heard in many places around the world, and who go through hard training in order to offer their country a few seconds of national pride and exaltation.

Most of all, it the state that ignores them, because it fails to offer all the necessary means to advance their efforts to win a gold, silver, or bronze medal.

Our collective support for our athletic champions must not be limited to the days following their triumph, or of the proverbial tearing down of parts of a city’s walls to let victorious athletes pass through, as the ancient Greeks did.

The state has a duty to offer them financial and all other necessary assistance.

The conditions under which javelin throw athlete Elina Tzengko (photo) trains are atrocious, despite the fact that the Sports Club of Nea Kallikrateia, Chalkidiki, to which she belongs, has chalked up many successes in the past.

The case of the 19-year-old javelin throw champion is hardly unique. It is not an exception to the rule. It has been the prevalent situation for decades.

The time has come for us to get rid of yet another longstanding, unacceptable pattern.

It is not enough for our country to ask our athletes what they can do for it.

Our country must seriously consider what it can do for them.

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