Maria Polyzou OLYMPIANS, - AUTHOR is the first Greek woman to compete in the marathon at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. She was elected on the New Democracy ballot in the May 2023 elections and sworn in as a Member of Parliament on May 28, 2023. She is a special advisor to the Minister of Sports, Mr. Giannis Vroutsis. She was a champion for twenty consecutive years and holds the Greek record in the marathon, a record that remains to this day with a time of 2:33:40. She holds the best Greek performance on the authentic route from Marathon to Athens with a time of 2:39:10 from the 1997 World Championships, where she also placed 12th. She holds the Panhellenic Record in the Half Marathon with a time of 1:13:31 since 1998.

She won the First Gold Balkan Medal in Marathon, setting a Balkan record running in Constantinople in 1990. The National Anthem was played in her honor within the city. She broke 14 Panhellenic Records at various distances. In July 2010, she repeated a feat of world history. On the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon, she ran the distance from Athens to Sparta, rested for an hour, and then took the return route. She first went to the Acropolis and from there to the tomb of the fallen in Marathon. In seven days, Maria covered 524 kilometers, a distance roughly equivalent to 13 marathons (42 km each). This is the Feidipidean feat, and Maria Polyzou is the only woman from antiquity to the present day to have repeated it.

She was declared the Ambassador of the Marathon in 2009.

She was declared an AMBASSADOR of ELYZA for abused children and actively supports, through a series of actions, the fight against VIOLENCE

- Actively assists in combating VIOLENCE against women, with speeches and presentations sending strong messages to society.

She is a member of the Women's Committee of AIMS (World Marathon Federation) for the development of the running movement worldwide.

She is the author of the books "SOUL AND BODY" BIG DAUGHTER and "DON'T GIVE UP" KEYBOOKS PUBLICATIONS.

The children's fairy tale "A GIANT CALLED M.P." by author Magda Kostopoulou-Beriou was published in Greek and English in 2016. She was the Director of the Marathon Museum and contributed greatly to its creation, which was inaugurated by the President of the Hellenic Republic Mr. Karolos Papoulias, and in 2009 the Ministry of Education program was included as a primary and secondary school trip. She is a coach for long distances and has created the MARATHON TEAM GREECE by Maria Polyzou team, which has been awarded by agencies and clubs for its action in the sports and social solidarity program "42.195." She continues to compete and fight for the contribution of every kilometer to her fellow human beings in need.

Since 2020, she has been giving speeches to women with breast cancer, as she has passed through what she calls the marathon of life, showing women how exercise can contribute to their recovery after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. She is an ambassador of "Women in Oncology" (w4o) is a dynamic network of women doctors dealing with Oncology.

She was honored by the Prime Minister of our country Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis in 2021 for her contribution and the social messages she gives Panhellenically for breast cancer. She has been honored by the President of the Republic Ms. Katerina Sakellaropoulou. She has been awarded by clubs and federations in Greece and abroad. SOCIAL OFFER From 2011 to today, in the Marathon and Social Solidarity program "42.195" of MARATHON TEAM GREECE by Maria Polyzou, she contributed to the support of the NGO "WE CAN" by collecting 40,000 food portions for the homeless and people in need.

Through the program, she has donated dozens of athletic shoes to refugees as well as sports equipment to people in need. She is an Ambassador of LIFE LINE HELLAS and supports the foundation of Princess Aikaterini. Actively assists in combating poverty in the country through food donations to social groceries in the country, and she is actively there to offer wherever needed. She actively supports "VISION OF HOPE" in children in need of volunteer bone marrow donors, with a series of races throughout Greece, participating herself as a trained volunteer for the global bone marrow bank. The children's fairy tale was published with her life, and part of the proceeds go to VISION OF HOPE. She visits nursing homes, orphanages, hospitals, and asylum homes for the elderly in our country, assisting both with her presence and actively in the respective needs of each institution.

She takes care of homeless people in Athens through the marathon and social solidarity program, cooking dozens of hot meals herself and offering them at regular intervals taken from the neighborhoods in central Athens. She is always close to earthquake victims wherever they are in our country and sends food, clothing, and food and medical supplies. She was on the side of the people affected in Mandra Attica and Karditsa, taking care of the citizens from the first moment in the reinforcement of the citizens who were affected by material and first aid.

She is always on the side of the Greek Red Cross and actively assists with her presence wherever she is needed. After all, as she says herself, "the hands that give are better than the hands that pray." She visits schools and speaks to children about the values ​​of sport. She visits Gypsy and Roma camps. She travels to Kenya and India for voluntary service... because love and offering have no borders. She actively supports Doctors of the World, collecting medical materials that travel to every corner of the earth suffering. The offer of selfless service is the oxygen of life.