The annual European Fair Play Awards event took place in Mardin, Turkey, on 21-24 October 2024.
The EFPM (European Fair Play Movement) in a beautiful event in the historic Turkish city, in the presence of representatives from the majority of European countries, presented this year's Fair Play awards after the EFPM vote in Brussels.
This year, the event was of particular Greek interest, since the European body, following the steps of the World Modern Pentathlon Federation, awarded Penelope Nika the European “Spirit of Fair Play Award”, recognizing her act at the Modern Pentathlon World Cup in Sofia as an act of exemplary behavior and a remarkable gesture of Fair Play.
Nika in this race, which was a crucial race for the Olympic ranking, due to a problem in the electronic timing system in swimming, she found herself leading in the ranking before the last event of the pentathlon (which is her strongest event). Nika immediately informed the race judges to correct the error, who were initially skeptical, believing that the athlete was referring to an error in her opponent's time and not her own. She chose to forfeit the easy-to-valuable points of an Olympic qualification and a distinction in an important race rather than exploit the error at her opponents« expense. As she stated at her award ceremony: »One of the first things I was taught when I started in sport was that as an athlete I have to know the rules, follow them, but most importantly respect my opponent! It is an attitude in life that I try to follow not only when I am competing but also in my life in general.".
EFPM Secretary General Ioannis Psilopoulos was also present at the event.
