Emmanouli Karalis gives insight about the early struggles he experienced to get his pole vault career to the level it is now.
Paris Olympic pole vault bronze medallist Emmanouil ‘Manolo’ Karalis has revealed the early barriers he faced in his career that have derailed his development.
While his progress has seen him soar, Emmanouli Karalis has openly talked about the struggles he has encountered during a career of ‘ups and downs’. In an exclusive interview with World Athletics, Karalis, 24, revealed the racial stereotype he went through and how it was tough to deal with it.
Inglander reflected her 2024 and is grateful for everything that happened as she looks forward to an even better 2025.
“I’ve been dealing with racism, and I’ve been dealing with depression,” he explained. “I had one or two years where I wasn’t able to perform as well as I wanted, but I believed in myself and had a support system around me.”
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The Greek explained that he was discouraged to venture into pole vault because of his colour but is happy for what he has achieved so far in his budding career. “When I was young in Greece, they used to tell me that black people don’t pole vault, but I have become the first black pole vaulter to ever jump six metres,” Emmanouli Karalis pointed out.
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Kennedy shared the gold medal with Katie Moon at the 2023 World Championships although most people opposed the decision.
Karalis is relieved that now he has a good support system that has helped him to surpass all those problems and his life has improved a great deal. “I have my family, of course, and other people around me who support me – my agents, my coaches and my teammates. They have helped me to surpass all those problems and sometimes you need to relax and think about life in general. I was hungrier than ever to be able to come back and compete at the highest level. I’ve been very lucky to have my family around me.”
Emmanouli Karalis hopes his experience will help inspire the future generation but wants to win silverware before hanging up his spikes.
“I think I break some barriers for my community – my Greek community, my African community – and I hope a young black kid from Greece or anywhere in the world can see me as someone that broke a barrier, and that being black and doing pole vault is something that you can do and you can do on a high level. I hope I can be someone that can inspire young kids to start pole vaulting.”
To Emmanouil Karalis, the performances he achieved in 2024 represent more than sporting success – he continued to break barriers. In Silesia in August, fresh from claiming Olympic bronze in Paris, the Greek star became the 29th pole vaulter in history to vault six metres or more, in the first competition to ever have three athletes clear that height in a single contest.
Karalis is doing great things in what he deems a “golden era” of pole vaulting. As well as the 6.00m clearances by Karalis and USA’s Sam Kendricks during that Wanda Diamond League meeting in Silesia, Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis improved the world record for the 10th time, clearing 6.26m.
