Protest for Spyridon Louis Statue in Melbourne

A modest but moving event took place on Oct 25^th- the unveiling of the statue of legendary Spyridon (“Spyros”) Louis in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. However, the ceremony was disturbed by the protest of a group of citizens who did not agree with having the statue of a foreign athlete in their region.

Less than twenty protesters were gathered holding placards with slogans such us “We don’t want Spyridon’s statue in our region,” “Spyridon who?” “Spyridon go home” as well as some other insulting comments.

The decision of the Municipality of the City of Casey (a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne) to erect a statue of Spyridon Louis at Berwick has caused reactions for months.

More than a thousand residents of the region had expressed their strong protest to the municipality’s plan to construct a statue of the Greek Olympic champion, and even signed a protest letter sent to their mayor arguing that the Greek Olympic medalist has nothing to do with Australia or their municipality.

The municipality though, did not back down as the statue of Louis was erected in a very close distance with the statue of the Australian Olympic champion Edwin Flack. Flack was Australia’s first Olympian, being its only representative in the 1896 Olympic Games of Athens, and the first Olympic champion in the 800 metres and the 1500 metres running events, while he was defeated by Louis in marathon.

So, the municipality had a point in supporting that in fact, there is a connection between the two statues and more importantly the statue symbolizes the friendship between Greece and Australia.  The 39,000 dollar statue was funded by the State Government of Victoria along with Greek Australian enterprises and constitutes an initiative of the Australian Hellenic Organisation, in Support of the Olympic Spirit and Ideal (AHOSOSI) and its leader Aristides Paganakis.

Aristides Paganakis, Consul General for Greece in Melbourne Eleni Lianidou, the mayor of the City of Casey Amanda Stapledon, the Shadow Minister Jenny Mikakos, and other officials were present at the unveiling of the Spyridon Louis statue.

Spyridon (“Spyros”) Louis (January 12, 1873 – March 26, 1940) was a Greek water-carrier who won the first modern-day Olympic marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics, thereby becoming a national hero.