Christos Chatziathanasiou passed away

CHRISTOS CHATZIATHANASSIOU PASSED AWAY
The International Olympic Academy family, with great sorrow, said the final farewell to its Vice President CHRISTOS CHATZIATHANASSIOU, who died suddenly on Saturday, October 15th, 2011.
Christos Chatziathanassiou was born on April 15th, 1951 and studied economics and political sciences at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
In 1976 he concluded his studies with a master’s degree in economics from the same university.
Later on, he dedicated himself to the family business and more specifically to the import of foodstuff, having a share of 50% in three companies.
At the same time, he was involved with the hotel industry from 1969 up to 1991.
In the sports field, he was passionally involved with the sport of ice-skating and he was internationally recognized for the efforts he made in order to promote it in our country and to push forward young athletes of this beautiful sport.
He was elected President of the Hellenic Federation of ice-skating in 1986 and until today he was always being re-elected at this position.
He had been President of the Audit Committee of the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) from 1994 to our day as well as President of the Balkan Union of ice-skating from 1990 to 2002.
He was appointed Member of the Hellenic Olympic Committee from 2005 to his death while from 2005-2008 he served as President of the Ethics Commission.
He was elected Vice-President of the International Olympic Academy in 2009.
Despite the problems due to the lack of financial resources that the federation of ice-skating endured, his presence in the meetings of the Ephoria of the IOA was constant, and he greatly contributed to the IOA’s works.
The members of the IOA Ephoria will always remember his strong personality and the perfect collaboration he always had with the IOA President, Mr Isidoros Kouvelos.