You might not know the name of Vaso Vougiouka, and you might not know about fencing either, but this 26-year old young girl recently made headlines and trust us after reading this story she will be a name you will never forget.
Vaso is a fencing champion for the Greek national team. Earlier this year she won the gold medal in sabre at the Fencing World Cup, held in London in late February 2012 as well as qualified for the London Olympic Games. After accomplishing several challenges on the international athletics scene, and even competing in the Olympic Games in 2012 with broken teeth, she was approached by Turkish sports scouts who offered her an athletics career in Turkey with an annual 500,000 Euro salary to play with their team. That is 1,000 times more than the 500 Euros she receives a month from the Greek Athletics Federation for representing our country. The Turkish sports scouts advised her that all she had to do was to denounce her Greek citizenship perform a white wedding and obtain the Turkish citizenship.
In the video below, she told the hosts of a popular MEGA channel weekend news show that the offer was indeed enticing but some values and principles are not for sale. Specifically she said that the reasons she turned down their offer was simply because she is "Greek" and has the soul and sentiment of Greece inside her heart. "When I get up on the awards stand I need to hear the national anthem of Greece. National symbols cannot be (bought or) sold. My father could not accept this, and was negative from the start. He told me we cannot sell everything".
Her words, and her father's advice should be an example to all of us since they speak VOLUMES!
Not only did this young 26-year old decide to turn down an offer of a lifetime, she also feels proud for doing so as well. So are we. It is personalities such as Vasso that give us a reason to continue believing in Greece, and we are honored that this girl represents the blue and white in all its glory.
Bravo kopela mou!
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