Before Alexi Pappas earned her spot on Greece’s Olympic team, before she bolted past the Olympic standard by nearly 30 seconds at the Payton Jordan Invitational on May 1 — Greek Orthodox Easter — she thought of her yiayia.
Pappas knew representing her elderly grandmother’s native country at the Olympics would lift her spirits, and she would do anything to make her proud. So in just her third 10,000-meter race on the track, she shattered the Greek national record — finishing in 31 minutes 46.85 seconds — and will be the first woman to compete for Greece in the event at the Olympics.