NAME:
THEOXAROPOULOS THEOFANIS ERMIS
DISCIPLINE:
SPORT CLIMBING
HOMETOWN:
CURRENTLY LIVING: IOANNINA, IPIROS
BIRTH DATE:
Short bio, a few words that define you as an athlete and as a person:
Graduate of IEK 2018-2020, Sports Coach (speciality: Personal trainer – Fitness)
Member of the Greek National Team in Competitive Climbing
Specialist in the Professional Gymnastics Team of the National Gymnastics Team in the National Gymnastics Team of Greece
As an athlete the main characteristics that define me are the passion and love I have for what I do and my great will to develop and work hard!
As a person I consider myself to be quite dedicated to what I do, giving, sensitive and with a good sense of humour!
When did you ever get involved in your sport?
I’ve been climbing since I can remember (because of my parents) and as my mother says, first I climbed and then I walked!
So yes climbing is my whole life.
By the time I was 7 and up until I was 12 I was more seriously into it with more dedication and I had started to take part in some of the competitions organised by the Climbing Federation at the time.
But then there was the period when we moved from Athens to the village, where my parents are still in Tzoumerka in the village of Agnanta, so I took a 6 year gap then and I have now for the last almost 3.5 years that I have been back to competing.
What do you like most about your sport?
That it’s never the same!
Climbing for me is one of the only sports where you never know what is waiting for you!
It’s anarchy of movements it’s nothing standardized and most importantly you always have an “enemy” trying to bring you down every time…. Gravity!
All of this scratches my itch a lot and makes me get better and better every day!
Also climbing is also trips and days where you are not in the gym for training but with other climbing friends or not in a beautiful climbing field, on rocks, in nature, in areas you may never have gone to and sharing the same passion!
Who or what inspires you?
One of the first people that I admire and have as a role model and I think has played the most important role in what I do is my coach and my father Yannis Theocharopoulos who is a man with a long history but the most important thing is not his history but that he can see my potential and where I can reach even on days when I can’t!
As far as athletes are concerned I am terribly impressed and humbled by the now Olympic champion Alberto Gines Lopez and Colin Duffy who have achieved so much at such a young age! (not that that means I don’t admire the rest of the world class athletes!)
Describe your perfect day:
Well, my perfect day starts at my house in Ioannina being woken up by the beautiful colours of the sunrise in the sky, I will get ready so I will go out for about an hour run, come back take a shower, eat breakfast and then off to work!
By the time I get home in the afternoon I’ll eat something light and go for my second and main workout, and yay I’m finally going to climb😁, so I’ll do my workout and everything will have gone perfectly and as it should, technique, flexibility, dynos and coordination boulders (I love them), about 3 hours.
I’ll come back home I’ll take a shower, eat and before I sleep if the weather is nice I want to spend time with the people I love and are close to me, banter, some walking around town, maybe some beer or wine, and if the weather isn’t nice relaxing at home with some nice music or an interesting movie….
But not for long because ideally I like to go to bed early and not stay up too late!
So somehow it’s a perfect day for me and I’m grateful that so far I’m achieving it and most of my days are like this!