A minute with Maria Markou (Pikkoua) IT teacher and bench lifter

Where do you live?
In Limassol with my parents and three siblings.

What did you have for breakfast?
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for an athlete, so I always watch what I eat to recharge my batteries for the rest of the day. Today I had yoghurt, oats, muesli, nectarines, dark chocolate chips and honey mixed with cinnamon and garnished with almonds and seeds.

Describe your perfect day
A perfect day for me is waking up in the morning, feeling physically good, eating my breakfast, and then successfully completing the goals I set for the day when I woke up. The life of an athlete is strange and demanding, for this reason we have a different daily life, different habits from every other person.

Best book ever read?
I don’t have free time to devote to reading, apart from work, but if I did I would devote it to reading motivational books.

Best childhood memory?
My athletic development, my strength and my love for sports that pushed me to fight every day, slowly and steadily with patience, perseverance and dedication, to reach the biggest sporting event in the world, the Olympic/Paralympic Games.

What is always in your fridge?
Eggs and bananas, essential healthy foods for a top athlete.

What music are you listening to in the car at the moment?
It varies depending on how I wake up, but I usually listen to Greek music.

What’s your spirit animal?
Since I am an Aries in the zodiac, I would say the ram, but I admire the she-wolf for her loneliness, for not belonging to a pack, not belonging to a set, not belonging to anyone but herself, she is independent.

What are you most proud of?
I am proud of the people who fight every day to stay alive and emerge victorious beyond the problems that exist in their daily lives, who smile without knowing what tomorrow will bring and who have a will and love for life. Also, I am proud of all the athletes who constantly fight at any cost, so that their dreams come true, to win many medals for Cyprus and to ‘climb’ as high as they can.

What movie scene has really stayed with you?
In the movie Creed III where his childhood friend and former boxer, reappears after many years in prison and then leads him to claim the top in the ring again. The scene here teaches us many different things. Among other things, messages are conveyed that the past can reappear and that we should never rest.

If you could pick anyone at all (alive or dead) to go out for the evening with, who would it be?
I would like to meet the Greek long jump athlete Miltos Tentoglou because I admire his competitiveness and his special character. He is a great athlete with tremendous talent.

If you could time travel when/where would you go?
I wouldn’t travel back in time under any circumstances. I’m of the opinion that we live for the now and the moment, I wouldn’t change anything at all.

What is your greatest fear?
My biggest fear is not living life as it should be, not taking risks, not feeling the danger, the adrenaline, the passion, the daring, the excitement for even greater adventures.

What would you say to your 18-year-old self?
Nothing different because it would change the beauty of today, the spontaneous, the carefree, the strange. But the phrase I had in mind growing up is to always be authentic, be yourself and not give importance to those who try to make you become someone else.

Name the one thing that would stop you dating someone
It wouldn’t date someone who for some reason is rude and disrespectful to women.

If the world is ending in 24 hours what would you do?
I would live every minute without regretting anything! Without thinking about anything!