Kontides first Cypriot to win Olympic medal
Sailing star eyeing gold at 2016 Rio Games
(CNN)As a child, Pavlos Kontides was always drawn to the waters around his birthplace of Limassol, Cyprus.
His father took him to join the local sailing club aged just six, but he was deemed too young to sail until he was nine. Once he was accepted, however, there was no taming his nautical curiosity.
The ocean’s sparkling allure has since grown into a life’s obsession for the 26-year-old international sailing star — and one that’s been thoroughly rewarding.
“My relationship with the sea is unique I would say. It’s an affair” Kontides tells CNN’s Human to Hero series.
“From a young age (I was) always attracted to it. It’s just something that always calms me and I love being next to it,” he adds.
Olympic first
The Mediterranean island of Cyprusremains a bitterly divided place after it waspartitioned between a Turkish-Cypriot north and Greek-Cypriot south in 1974.
But Kontides’ courtship with the waves around his homeland has seen him earn national hero status.
He became the first Cypriot to win an Olympic medal when claiming silver in the men’s Laser Class sailing event at the 2012 London Games.
Pavlos Kontides: Olympian who sailed into history books 02:57
“That was the point of my life that was amazing,” he says. “I was preparing my whole youth for that moment.”
“We have such a small country … less than a million population so winning that first ever Olympic medal shows that it’s not about numbers. We are so small but we have big heart.”
Kontides was mobbed upon returning home from London. The Cyprus Airways jet transporting him was showered with a victory arch from the hoses of the local fire brigade.
The plane carrying Pavlos Kontides taxies under a victory water arch laid on by the fire service after landing at Larnaca Airport.
Crowds of fans and well-wishers also gathered at the arrivals hall to greet him with offers of flowers and an olive leaf garland crown.
For Kontides, who once faced the possibility of having to give up the sport he loved because of a back injury early in his career, the adulation was thoroughly satisfying if not a little unnerving at first.
“I became a hero, I am still a hero and people now recognize me,” he says.
“My friends and family still treat me in the same way. But people, strangers, people around they will recognize me and that makes me feel special,” Kontides beams.
“In the beginning it was a bit weird when I came back, but on the end it’s something that you need to have to show people appreciate what you did. It makes you feel happy.”
Like ‘cycling and playing chess’
The sweet taste of success and fame has only intensified Kontides love for the life aquatic.
He began to study ship science at the UK’s University of Southampton but his intense training regime has seen him spend most of his time in Cyprus.
Kontides describes the intricacies and physical demands of sailing as like “cycling at a high heart rate up the hill and at the same time playing chess.”
CNN