Marios Georgiou

Marios Georgiou (born 10 November 1997) is a Cypriot artistic gymnast. He is the 2022 European horizontal bar champion and the first gymnast from Cyprus to win a European title. He is the 2019 European Championships all-around bronze medalist which made him the first gymnast from Cyprus to win a European medal. He is the 2019 European Games parallel bars silver medalist. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, he won the gold medals in the floor exercise and parallel bars and the bronze medal in the all-around, and he won four bronze medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He is the 2018 Mediterranean Games all-around and horizontal bar champion and the 2022 Mediterranean Games horizontal bar champion. He competed at the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games.
Early life
Georgiou was born in Limassol and is the son of a Cypriot father and a Filipina mother. He has four half-siblings. He began gymnastics when he was three years old.
Career
Junior
Georgiou competed at the 2013 Gymnasiade and won the gold medal on the pommel horse. He then competed at the 2014 Junior European Championships and finished tenth in the all-around final. He also qualified for the rings final where he finished fifth. He represented Cyprus at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. However, during the qualification round, he injured his finger and withdrew from the rest of the competition.
Senior
Georgiou began competing at the senior level in 2015. He competed at the 2015 European Championships in Montpellier, France. He qualified for the all-around final where he finished nineteenth. He then competed at the 2015 Games of the Small States of Europe and won the gold medals in every event except the floor exercise and the rings. He represented Cyprus at the 2015 European Games and was the first reserve for the all-around final and the third reserve for the horizontal bar final. Then at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, he finished fifty-fourth in the all-around and qualified for the 2016 Olympic Test Event. At the Test Event, he finished thirty-eighth in the all-around and qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Georgiou represented Cyprus at the 2016 Summer Olympics and qualified for the all-around final, becoming the first gymnast from Cyprus to advance to an Olympic final. However, he had to withdraw in the middle of the final due to an ankle injury.
Georgiou began the 2017 season at the European Championships in Cluj-Napoca where he finished thirteenth in the all-around final. He won the bronze medal on the horizontal bar at both the Koper and Szombathely World Challenge Cups. He then represented Cyprus at the 2017 Summer Universiade and finished fifteenth in the all-around final and sixth in the horizontal bar final. At the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, he finished sixteenth in the all-around final.
Georgiou represented Cyprus at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, helping the team finish fourth. In the all-around final, he won the bronze medal behind English gymnasts Nile Wilson and James Hall. He then finished sixth in the vault final and fifth in the rings final. He won the gold medals in both the floor exercise and parallel bars finals. He then competed at the 2018 Mediterranean Games and helped the Cypriot team finish fifth. Individually, he won the gold medal in the all-around and horizontal bar, the silver medal on parallel bars behind Ahmet Önder, and the bronze medal on the pommel horse behind Cyril Tommasone and Robert Seligman. At the 2018 Osijek World Challenge Cup, Georgiou won his first World Challenge Cup gold medal by winning the parallel bars. He did not qualify for any finals at the 2018 European Championships. He then won the bronze medal on the horizontal bar at the Szombathely World Challenge Cup. He finished tenth in the all-around final at the 2018 World Championships, the highest World all-around finish ever for a gymnast from Cyprus.
Georgiou competed at the 2019 European Championships and won the bronze medal in the all-around behind Russians Nikita Nagornyy and Artur Dalaloyan. This marked the first time a gymnast from Cyprus won a medal in the all-around at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships. He also finished eighth in the pommel horse final. He then represented Cyprus at the 2019 European Games and finished eighteenth in the all-around final. In the parallel bars final, he won the silver medal behind Ukrainian gymnast Oleg Verniaiev. He also finished fifth in the pommel horse final. At the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, he finished forty-seventh in the all-around during the qualification round and qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Georgiou won the gold medal on the horizontal bar at the 2021 Doha World Cup. He then represented Cyprus at the postponed-2020 Summer Olympics. He did not qualify for any finals, but he was the first reserve for the horizontal bar final after finishing ninth in the qualification round. He then competed at the 2021 World Championships and was the first reserve for the parallel bars final.
At the 2022 Varna World Challenge Cup, Georgiou won the gold medals on the pommel horse, parallel bars, and horizontal bar. He then represented Cyprus at the 2022 Mediterranean Games and helped the team finish in fifth place. Then in the all-around final, he won the bronze medal behind Adem Asil and Joel Plata. He then won the gold medal in the horizontal bar final. He was represented Cyprus at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and was selected to be the flagbearer during the Parade of Nations. The Cypriot team won the bronze medal behind England and Canada. Then in the all-around final, he repreated as the Commonwealth all-around bronze medalist behidn English gymnasts Jake Jarman and James Hall. He also won the bronze medal in the parallel bars final behind English gymnasts Joe Fraser and Giarnni Regini-Moran and in the horizontal bar final behind teammate Ilias Georgiou and Australian Tyson Bull. He also finished seventh in the pommel horse final. Then at the 2022 European Championships, he won the gold medal in the horizontal bar final with a score of 14.400. He became the first gymnast from Cyprus to win a gold medal at the European Championships.
Georgiou did not compete at the 2023 European Championships due to an injury.
References
External links
1997 births
Living people
Cypriot male artistic gymnasts
Sportspeople from Limassol
Gymnasts at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics
Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic gymnasts for Cyprus
Gymnasts at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games medallists in gymnastics
Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Cyprus
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Cyprus
Gymnasts at the 2018 Mediterranean Games
Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Cyprus
Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Cyprus
Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Cyprus
Mediterranean Games medalists in gymnastics
Gymnasts at the 2015 European Games
Gymnasts at the 2019 European Games
European Games medalists in gymnastics
European Games silver medalists for Cyprus
Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Gymnasts at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
European champions in gymnastics
Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
Olympic athletes for Cyprus