Chang Style Novice
08-10-2004, 06:50 AM
http://www.freep.com/sports/othersports/line10e_20040810.htm
From Detroit Free Press
Olympian's boyfriend jumps from same balcony as she did
August 10, 2004
As relatives tell it, it was the stuff of Greek tragedy: A lovestruck young man threw himself off his balcony Monday, two days after a quarrel prompted his girlfriend -- a member of Greece's Olympic judo team -- to jump from the same spot.
"He had very intense feelings about the girl. He was very much in love," said Nikos Drakopoulos, a printer who lives across the hall from the couple in Nea Ionia, Greece. "He could not see himself living if she was gone."
Giorgos Chrisostomides, 24, was on life support at an Athens hospital with injuries to his head and back. His high school sweetheart, 20-year-old judo champion Eleni Ioannou, was at another hospital in critical condition with multiple fractures to her head and body.
Friends and relatives said the couple's argument on Saturday was minor, and they were shocked at its tragic consequences.
"It was a small fight, something silly," said Chrisostomides' cousin and downstairs neighbor, Paul Michaelides. "It started about who would play solitaire on the computer."
---WTFing F!??!!? -csn
The fight escalated, and Ioannou eventually hurled herself from the balcony of the third-floor apartment, they said. She fell onto a concrete driveway that winds behind the apartment building.
Police questioned Chrisostomides and released him. But Chrisostomides was inconsolable.
On Sunday, Chrisostomides' grief got the better of him. Screaming, "I'm going to find Eleni," he ran toward the balcony, but friends and relatives stopped him before he could jump.
Chrisostomides' grandmother took him to see a therapist Monday morning, relatives said.
But back home, they said, as Chrisostomides was having lunch with his grandmother, he suddenly stood and bolted for the balcony.
"He was sitting there eating, and he just got up and jumped," Michaelides said. "His grandparents were there, but they couldn't stop him."
From Detroit Free Press
Olympian's boyfriend jumps from same balcony as she did
August 10, 2004
As relatives tell it, it was the stuff of Greek tragedy: A lovestruck young man threw himself off his balcony Monday, two days after a quarrel prompted his girlfriend -- a member of Greece's Olympic judo team -- to jump from the same spot.
"He had very intense feelings about the girl. He was very much in love," said Nikos Drakopoulos, a printer who lives across the hall from the couple in Nea Ionia, Greece. "He could not see himself living if she was gone."
Giorgos Chrisostomides, 24, was on life support at an Athens hospital with injuries to his head and back. His high school sweetheart, 20-year-old judo champion Eleni Ioannou, was at another hospital in critical condition with multiple fractures to her head and body.
Friends and relatives said the couple's argument on Saturday was minor, and they were shocked at its tragic consequences.
"It was a small fight, something silly," said Chrisostomides' cousin and downstairs neighbor, Paul Michaelides. "It started about who would play solitaire on the computer."
---WTFing F!??!!? -csn
The fight escalated, and Ioannou eventually hurled herself from the balcony of the third-floor apartment, they said. She fell onto a concrete driveway that winds behind the apartment building.
Police questioned Chrisostomides and released him. But Chrisostomides was inconsolable.
On Sunday, Chrisostomides' grief got the better of him. Screaming, "I'm going to find Eleni," he ran toward the balcony, but friends and relatives stopped him before he could jump.
Chrisostomides' grandmother took him to see a therapist Monday morning, relatives said.
But back home, they said, as Chrisostomides was having lunch with his grandmother, he suddenly stood and bolted for the balcony.
"He was sitting there eating, and he just got up and jumped," Michaelides said. "His grandparents were there, but they couldn't stop him."