Angelos Fetsis

Angelos Fetsis (Greek: Άγγελος Φέτσης, 1878 – 16 October 1968) was a Greek athlete. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He was born in Lefkada. Fetsis competed in the 800 metres event. He did not advance to the finals to the finals, however, as a second-place finish was required for advancement. He also competed in the 1500 metres event. He also did not place high enough to advance to the finals in this event.

Fetsis born in 1878 to Ionnis Fetsis and Smaragda Filippa, and was originally from the village of Lefkada, but he moved with his family to the Athenian district of Kallithea in 1891. He began his education at the Primary School of Lefkada, he then attended the Varvakeio High School, which he graduated from aged 18. He then joined the National Gymnastics Association and became a gymnastics teacher after training at the Athens School of Gymnasts.^[1][2]

He was a member of the Athlitikos Omilos Athinon, and in March 1896, he won the 800 and 1500 metres races of the Panhellenic Athletics Championships, which selected the Greek athletes for the 1896 Olympic Games.^[1] He won the 800 metre race at the Panellenic Athletics Championships with a time of 2:22.2.^[3] In the Olympics, he competed in the 800 metres. He did not get a qualifying placement in his preliminary heat to get him to the final. In the 1500 metres, he also failed to qualify for the finals.^[1]

Fetsis was studying law at the University of Athens, when he was called up to serve in the army, at the Reserve Officers' School in Corfu. There, he became a reserve second lieutenant, and was dissmissed. He then finished his law degree. Despite this, he did not pursue a career as a lawyer, and instead became a gymnastics teacher. In 1900, he enrolled in the Athens School of Gymnasts, at which he was appointed teacher of Physical Education. Then, the National Gymnastics Association, which he was a part of, hired him as supervisor.^[2]

In 1905, he was invited to Cairo and took over as an organizer and coach at the Ifitos Gymnastics Club, a club for the Greek diaspora in Cairo. He also published a book, The Physical Education of Youth. In 1906, he organized the First Pan-Egyptian Games, in which Ifitos' Arthur Marson was declared champion and qualified to participate in the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens. A disagreement with Ifitos regarding the flag under which the team would appear in the Intercalated Games, Greek or Egyptian, was the reason for his return to Greece.^[2][4]

After his return, he helped in the creation of sports clubs. In 1907, he founded the Diagoras Athletic Club. In 1910, after the dissolution of his club, Athlitikos Omolis Athinon, he joined Ethnikos G.S. Athens. Around the same time, he opened a gymnasium in Makrygianni, Athens. In 1908, he founded the O Aris Shooting Club.^[2]

Beginning in 1909, he began the publication of a magazine titled NIKH. It was published until 1928 with some pauses, due to various conflicts and wars. The magazine contained information on the important sporting events of the time, as well as articles and studies by various personalities as well as pieces on the history of sports, physical education, nature worship, personal hygiene, and his speeches to important figures.^[1][2]

In 1912, at the age of 35, he was called up to serve his country in the First Balkan War, in Epirus. On February 21, the Greek army liberated Bizani from the Ottomans. Afterwards, on February 24, Parga was captured. He was the first officer to enter the city with his men.^[1][2] One of the wealthy rulers of the city, Spyridon Vervitsiotis, had made a vow in secret, to give his only daughter Aglaia in marriage to the first unmarried officer who would enter the city. He revealed this to Fetsis at a meal in celebration of the Greek victory. Fetsis accepted, the engagement took place and the marriage was arranged after demobilization. In April 1914, the two were wed. The following year in 1915, both Aglia and her unborn child died in a premature birth.^[2]

After the death of his wife and child, in 1918, he was appointed as a teacher at the gymnastics school, from which he had graduated. He worked there until 1923. After that, he retired due to an age limit in 1939, at the age of 62.^[2]

For his contribution and his long career in the public service, he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of the Saviour in 1924. In 1949, King Paul of Greece awarded him the Gold Cross of the Order of the Phoenix. For his military service in the Balkan War, King Constantine I awarded him the Medal for the Greco-Turkish War of 1912–1913.^[2]

Fetsis died on 16 October 1968,^[3] at the age of 91, at his home in Palaio Faliro. His funeral took place in the church of Agia Varvara.^[2] A mountain race organized since 2014 in Parga is dedicated to him because of his liberation of the city.^[2][5]

His great grandfather was also named Angelos Fetsis, and he was from the village of Drymonas. His only son Dimitrios moved to Agios Nikitas around the year 1815. Dimitrios had seven children, one of whom was Ioannis, the Angelos' father. All his children lived in Agios Nikitas, except for Ioannis, who moved to Caligoni after his marriage. This marriage took place in 1868, and was to Filippa, a Caligoni native, with whom he had five children, one of whom was Angelos.^[2]

In 1936, Fetsis began living in a privately owned house in Palaio Faliro, together with his second wife Eleni Angelou and his unmarried sister Kalliopi. He did not have any children, but adopted his niece Efthymia Verykiou, daughter of his sister Eleni, who had lost both her parents at a young age.^[2]

• Angelos Fetsis at Olympedia