Chrysanthos Papachrysanthou


Chrysanthos Papachrysanthou is a Cypriot former swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. He is a four-time All-Academic honoree, and an eight-time All-Conference champion in freestyle swimming. In 2002, Papachrysanthou was named Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award Recipient for his full commitment and dedication towards academic and athletic excellence, service, and leadership.
As a member of the Cyprus team, Papachrysanthou made his official debut at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he competed in the men's 100 m freestyle. He rounded out the fifth heat to last place and fifty-seventh overall by 0.04 of a second behind Ecuador's Felipe Delgado in 52.82. By the following year, Papachrysanthou shared silver medals with France's Julien Sicot in the 50 m freestyle at the 2001 Mediterranean Games in Tunis, Tunisia in 23.06 seconds.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Papachrysanthou qualified for the men's 50 m freestyle by eclipsing a FINA B-standard entry time of 23.04. He challenged seven other swimmers on the sixth heat, including three-time Olympian Julio Santos of Ecuador. He edged out Thailand's Arwut Chinnapasaen to take a fifth spot by a hundredth of a second, outside his entry time of 23.51. Papachrysanthou failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed forty-fifth out of 86 swimmers in the preliminaries.
Papachrysanthou is a member of the swimming team for Southern Illinois Salukis, and a graduate of physical education at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.