Born to Greek parents, Sofia Bekatorou Greek; born on 26 December 1977 in Athens is a Greek professional sailing champion. She is married to Dimitrios Vlahakis, who also owns a company specializing in the sale of yachts, motor yachts and sailing boats. At the moment, she has been employed by Piraeus-based Karpas Shipping Company. She has worked there since 1984.
At this point, Sofia Bekatorou is in the process of translating her Greek roots to a more modern language. This will allow her to continue her involvement in the Greek sailing world while maintaining her connection with the community that made her become a Greek sailing champion in the first place. As it stands now, Sofia Bekatorou is holding a gold medal as part of the female non-sailing category at the Olympic Games in Brazil. The gold medal means that she has broken one of the most important gender barriers in the field of Olympics.
A casual observer might have come to the conclusion that Sofia Bekatorou won the Olympic gold medal on the strength of her performance and that she is now beyond any shadow of doubt the world’s best female seiner. However, one also has to consider the fact that Sofia Bekatorou is also a member of the older generation of Greeks at a time when the younger generations are moving to the country’s more developed areas. In this respect, she has a lot to be proud of. For many years, Sofia Bekatorou was always compared to her more illustrious predecessors like Aristotle Onassis and Konstantin Tsipouliotis. However, after almost a decade of service at Piraeus, she is looking much younger and is trying to move on from the shadow of her former teammates.