Marina Hadjicosta: “Not Cypriot enough,” they said. She proved them wrong.

Sports racismTop News Marina Hadjicosta: “Not Cypriot enough,” they said. She proved them wrong. Marina Hadjicosta Relevant News Marina Hadjicosta: “Not Cypriot enough,” they said. She proved them wrong. 17 August 2026 Kushner to hold talks with Netanyahu after rare meeting with Hamas 17 August 2026 Trump orders Pentagon to cut back military exercises with South Korea 17 August 2026 Despoina Psyllou 17 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Marina Hadjicosta came home from the World U20 Athletics Championships in Oregon a few days ago with a bronze medal. For some people, that is still not enough. The 17-year-old throws discus and shot put, breaks world records in age groups older than her own, and stands on the top step of the podium in tears every time she hears the national anthem. Yet she says a small-minded few judge her on one thing only, the colour of her skin. They tell her she is not Cypriot, she told Phileleftheros. She answers with her performances, and with what she has to say about adoption, prejudice and racism. It all started when she was about eight. A coach visited her primary school and told her she could throw, she recalled. She tried it, liked it, started with the shot and later added the discus. Her events come down to technique, she explained. You do not simply pick up a discus and hurl it, she said. That is what fascinates her, that it demands precision, that you count even the degrees at which you release the discus, and that you have to become one with it. The difficulties are many and the challenges constant. There were moments when she wondered whether she wanted to continue at all, she said. It was the pressure she was under, which at times she felt was getting the better of her. Her parents, her friends and her coach were beside her and helped her through it. Elite sport demands hard daily training and sacrifices. Hadjicosta has often gone without nights out with friends, has to follow a set diet, and has to keep up with school as a pupil at the Lanitio athletics lyceum. In the end she feels all those sacrifices are worth it, she added, though she probably would not do it again, she said, laughing. Told she’s not Cypriot Hadjicosta revealed the adoption herself, in a post of her own that made her story public and explained the colour of her skin. Her biological father is Nigerian and her biological mother Polish. She was adopted at birth. She calls herself a proud Cypriot, raised in Limassol, with family roots in “occupied” Varosha, Pachna and Akapnou. She found out about the adoption when she was seven, perhaps a little younger, she said. Until last year, though, she did not feel comfortable discussing it or disclosing it, and had confided in only three people. It was a very sensitive subject for her. When people asked where her parents were from and pressed further, she felt awkward answering that they were from Cyprus, she said. She never revealed it outright, but for many it was obvious. They saw her, dark-skinned, and her parents, entirely white. Circumstances changed and Hadjicosta now speaks openly, wanting to give others strength. She hopes children in her position saw it, she said, and that at least one was inspired to follow their dreams the way she followed hers. Her parents are always beside her, she added. A child could not ask for better. She is their only daughter and they never refuse her anything. She is grateful they are her parents. She has never looked for her biological parents. She made no attempt to find them, she said, and does not think she will pursue it in the next five years. The comments that don’t stop her Her skin colour was singled out at school at times, Hadjicosta said. Children may have called her black, but she would not say she experienced bullying. She was lucky, and athletics helped. She had some early successes, and once the children at school saw them, they showed her respect. There are people, she noted, who have nothing better to do and who set out to mock and insult others. Any child who is targeted should remember they are not alone, she said, and should try to talk about what is happening to a friend or an adult they trust. They should let no one put obstacles in the way of their goals and their dreams, she added. The sky is the limit is her motto in life. She takes the same view of those who attacked her beneath posts about her achievements, calling her unworthy to represent Cypriot sport. She’s not Cypriot, they wrote. They just sit on the sofa and watch a girl achieve things they could only do in their sleep, she said. They do not break her. She will carry on, as Marina, showing them their comments do not bother her and that she will go as high as she can and do her country proud. Tears in Oregon and an unexpected bronze Hadjicosta did not believe she would win a medal until the competition was almost over. She went to Oregon with the eighth-best mark in the field, she said, and thought she could reach the final only if she got lucky. At the last moment, two athletes ranked above her were disqualified. She made mistakes of her own. Her first two throws were only 48 metres, a distance she had passed the previous year. She went to her coach and told him she did not know what had happened to her and that she would not even make the final. Her coach, Konstantinos Stavrou, was very relaxed about it, she recalled. He was pretending, to calm her down. She took her third qualifying throw and went through to the final with the sixth-best mark. Her personal record at that point was 56.5 metres. She opened the final with a strong first throw of 54 metres, she said, and the other athletes did not pass her. She kept wondering what was going on. A Chinese athlete was breathing down her neck, 30 centimetres behind. On that athlete’s final throw, Hadjicosta crossed herself. She could not even see what her rival had thrown. It landed at 50 metres. She told herself she had just done something unthinkable, she said. She had come third in the world. She started crying before she had even thrown, and she was next up. She pulled herself together and threw 52 metres. She came out of the circle and simply wept. Everyone celebrated. It was a very emotional competition, she adds. Medals, honours and records Hadjicosta has three more competitions before the end of the season, and expects a medal from at least one of them. Her big goal is the 2028 Olympic Games, and she is delighted to have had her coach alongside her for the past 11 months as they chase it. At 17 she has already collected a long list of medals and honours while breaking world records. Among the results that stand out are gold at the 2026 European U18 Championships, gold in both shot put and discus at the 2026 Cyprus men’s and women’s championship, eighth place at the 2026 European U23 Throwing Championship, and bronze at the 2025 European Youth Olympic Festival. She has also recorded the best performance in the world and in Europe in the U18 discus for 2026. She holds Cyprus records at U16 level in the 3kg and 4kg shot put and the discus, at U18 level in the 3kg and 4kg shot put and the discus, and at U20 level in the discus. She has been Cyprus champion nine times at U18 in shot put and discus, seven times at U20 and six times at U16, and twice at the women’s Cyprus championship. In 2024 she won silver at the World Gymnasiade U18. Read more: Are you listening, you vile racists? 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