Sofia Sakorafa

Medal record
Sofia Sakorafa with her husband
Women's Athletics
Competitor for Greece
European Championships
Bronze	1982 Athens	Javelin
Mediterranean Games
Gold	1979 Split	Javelin

Sofia Sakorafa (Greek: Σοφία Σακοράφα, born April 29, 1957) is a former javelin thrower from Greece. She was born in Trikala.

She broke the world record on 1982-09-16 with a throw of 74.20 metres. That mark stood as a Greek record until the new javelin was introduced in 1999.

Sakorafa started competing in athletics at age fifteen as a member of Trikala Gymnastic Club. In total, Sakorafa – often pushed by her antagonism with Anna Verouli – broke the Greek record for the javelin seventeen times. She competed in the 1976 and 1980 Summer Olympics.

Sakorafa is currently a physical education teacher. Besides athletics, she is also a political activist and has espoused several causes in her lifetime including world peace, women's rights, and Palestinian rights.

Sakorafa has served on the City Councils of Athens and Maroussi. She also nearly won a seat in the Hellenic Parliament under the banner of PASOK.

Sakorafa stirred controversy in 2004 when she became a Palestinian citizen and applied at the last minute for a berth on the Palestinian Olympic team at the age of 47. She made her debut representing Palestine in Chania, Crete, on June 28, 2004 - her performance was 47.23. Despite the fact that her gesture to participate as a Palestinian was symbolic, the IAAF ruled her ineligible for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

References

• Info
• IAAF Profile

This article incorporates text from the article Sofia_Sakorafa on Phantis.com, which is licensed under the GFDL ([1]).

Sporting positions
Preceded by Antoaneta Todorova	Women's Javelin Best Year Performance 1983	Succeeded by Tiina Lillak