ATHENS – “Our people can and will endure,” President of Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos said as he received Greek athlete Lefteris Petrounias on Thursday, in a message referring to the flood-stricken residents of western Attica.

Receiving the Olympic and world champion in artistic gymnastics, Pavlopoulos explained that he had not wanted to postpone the meeting on account of the three-day mourning declared in Greece because, as he said to Petrounias: “Your presence here means many things.”

“On a day of mourning, when many of our compatriots are ravaged, you and your fellow athletes, this generation that has given so much, proves that our people can and will endure. As long as there are people like you, who express excellency in a harmonious composition of performance and ethics, we will endure,” Pavlopoulos said.

On his part, Petrounias said it was an honour to be addressed in this way, “on a day that is shocking for me and for Greece. On behalf of the national Greek team I express our sorrow, compassion and solidarity to all the flood-stricken Greeks.”

Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos Receiving the Olympic and world champion in artistic gymnastics, Lefteris Petrounias, on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017. Photo: Eurokinissi/Christos Bonis