'I am from Tirana man… in Tirana, I grew up, I often made jokes with these gays speaking the dialect of Tirana…' - this is what Pirro Dhima (known internationally as Pyrros Dimas) said 12 years ago in an interview to the Albanian media Top Channel.
12 years after this statement, apparently today he has changed his mind. In an article by journalist Elena Akrita, she mentions Pirro Dhima as the Greek champion of Albanian origin.
This apparently irritated Pirro, the Albanian weightlifting champion and world record holder, who in a message sent to the journalist corrects her by emphasizing the fact that he is a Greek but is born in Albania.
A dichotomy that has accompanied throughout our lives the talented athletes that our country has had and unfortunately the politics and riots of the '90s gave the neighboring country Greece the opportunity to reap more fruits than the country of origin of these athletes.
So Pirro Dhima has corrected the Greek journalist who referred to him as a weightlifter of Albanian origin.
"I am a Greek but born in Albania", this was the answer that Dhima gave to the journalist Elena Akrita regarding the article that the latter had written about the Golden Dawn.
The weightlifter, a former world champion, has taken a strong stance against the neo-Nazi organization that even managed to enter the Greek parliament.
In her article, the journalist described Piro Dhima as "our champion of Albanian origin".
"We remember Piro Dhima in 2014, when MP Nikos Michos gets up and threatens to slap Petros Tatsopoulos, Dhima, then a member of PASOK stands up and blocks his way, telling him not to take another step. "Our champion of Albanian origin at that moment gave a lesson of democracy to the Greek parliament", wrote Akrita.
However, it seems that Dhima did not welcome this and responded immediately.
In his message to the journalist, Dhima states:
"Let me just make a correction. I am not of Albanian origin, I am a Greek but born in Albania. A minority child. Of course, I believe what you have written this unintentional. Anyway, I wanted to emphasize it".