He was born on May 5, 1952 in Thronos Rethymnon. Stelios Migiakis, came from a poor family of seven. The following year his parents moved to Athens. His childhood was hard.

He was only 12 years old when he was forced to work to help his family.

He sold soft drinks in cinemas and later worked in his neighbourhood grocery store. All day long he distributed ice to the neighborhoods. At night he would take his tray of soft drinks and walk outside the National Stadium, watching the wrestlers.

One day he asked his father for 30 drachmas to secretly sign up for the Athens National, the club that produced Jim Londo. He started his career quite by accident when he met Petros Galaktopoulos, the coach who prepared him for the Moscow Olympics, at the club. They immediately started training together. There were times when he didn’t even have a ticket to go to the gym and he would walk.

And that’s where it all started. Along the way, at a young age he became the Greek champion in the 52 kg category. In total, he has won 6 National Championships. He took part in four Olympics (1972 in Munich, 1976 in Montreal, 1980 in Moscow, 1984 in Los Angeles). On this day, he made history by winning the gold medal at the Moscow Olympics.

Stelios Migiakis, however, went down in history for the 1980 Olympics. After 20 years, Greece won a gold medal at the Olympics again. Stelios Migiakis was a great protagonist in the 62 kg category of Greco-Roman wrestling. Nothing was easy for the Greek champion with the great soul. He defeated the 1976 Olympic gold medalist from Poland Kazmiers Lipien and then Gulam from Afghanistan and Swedish Malkvist. A total of 11 wrestlers are competing in the division, so nothing is over. Soviet Boris Kramorenko, the theoretical favourite, awaits him but the Greek champion leaves undefeated, as he did in the grand final against Hungarian Istvan Tot. The Hungarian champion tried to come out both defeated with three submissions because he had a better technical rating but he failed to do so. Migiakis played these two difficult and crucial games in one hour, nothing was easy.

Following his success, he had stated at the time: “It was the greatest moment of my life. Years of fatigue and privation were rewarded in Moscow, a city I will never forget. My tension was terrible, I remember that two days before the fight with Kramorenko, I couldn’t sleep. Thousands of thoughts were going through my mind, I knew he was a great athlete. I said to myself that this game is my whole life, I have to avoid mistakes. Tot was always losing to me and I wasn’t scared even though I knew he wanted us both to lose. I was just worried about paying for the terrible fatigue I was feeling. The night after the gold medal, I remember getting drunk with my coach Peter Galaktopoulos.”