Paschalina Liouta: from Ironman to Spartathlon

Detailed show notes

From running to triathlon

She began running alone around 2008–2009 and ran the Athens Marathon at an easy pace in 2010. In 2015, she went straight into a 70.3 in Katerini after only a few months learning to swim. Swimming remained her weak point; cycling and running brought her forward.

In 2016, she completed Ironman distance in Venice on the same bike. She is not presented as the “first Greek woman” over the distance; she says a few women had already done it before her.

Frankfurt, slots and Kona

In Frankfurt in 2017, she placed second in her age group, sparking the Hawaii idea. She earned a slot a little later in France when the winner declined it. In 2018, she DNF’d Frankfurt with leg pain; sub-10 remained unfinished business.

She remembers Kona 2018’s festive atmosphere and difficult conditions. A week before the race, a jellyfish stung her during a training swim; she finished the route and collapsed on shore. A sciatic problem made the race run difficult. The 2019 70.3 Worlds in Nice followed, mainly for the course experience.

Fatigue, Covid and a move to ultras

After 2019, mental fatigue led her to stop structured triathlon. During lockdown, she and Jenny did a many-hour indoor Everesting challenge for charity. Swimming never felt familiar to her; the mountains did.

In 2022, she ran an approximately 175 km ultra in the Rhodope mountains, spending many hours alone in the cold and developing bone oedema along the way. There, she learnt that the race qualified her for the Spartathlon ballot. In 2023, forty days before a Dolomites race, she suffered a fracture and struggled to descend the mountain.

Psatha, the ballot and Spartathlon

With marathon training, she ran 120 km in Psatha without very long runs. She entered the ballot without direct qualification. For 2025, the organisers added more Greek women because no other woman had been drawn, a situation she describes as unfair to women.

She raced Spartathlon without music, with little support and without sitting at aid stations. She covered the early sections quickly and was high among the women, in a close race with Despoina Simantrakou. After the mountain came rain and anterior tibial pain; the final kilometres were mostly walking. At Leonidas, she felt disappointment rather than joy: her energy held up, but her leg did not.

Unfinished ambitions

After the race, she was diagnosed with anterior compartment syndrome and spent longer away from running than ever before. She first wants to run freely again, then a good marathon. Of her remaining ambitions, sub-3 matters more to her than a second Spartathlon or a sub-10 Ironman.