Alexi PAPPAS (GRE)
Olympian Artist – Film: PyeongChang 2018
Alexi Pappas is a Greek-American athlete and an award-winning writer and filmmaker.
Alexi competed in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, setting a national record for Greece in the 10km with a time of 31:36. Alexi has become known around the world for her positivity and confidence, especially for young women. She has been named the face of the “New Boom” in running. The Hollywood Reporter magazine described her as a “hard-to-resist blend of Audrey Hepburn and Joan Cusack.
© Tommaso Boddi via Getty Images
Questions and answers
You were invited by the IOC as an artist. For the first time you were not in competition and in the Winter Games. How did that feel?
It was a life changing experience to be at Olympic Games as an artist. When I competed in my first Olympics in Rio, I was very focused on my competition and loved my time in Rio so much, but in Korea I truly immersed myself in the community of athletes there. I felt lucky to be back in the places where I feel most at home: in the Olympic Village.
What do you think about this experience? How do you feel about it overall?
The Olympian Artists programme is a new way of expressing what it means to live the Olympic experience. I feel very grateful that the IOC believes in me as an athlete and artist. It’s given me even more inspiration to continue my art and encouraged me to train for the 2020 Olympics!
Do you think your film will really resonate with athletes?
Our aim is to make a film that athletes will want to show their children one day and say: “this is what it felt like to actually be there”. It’s very different from watching television coverage of the events or the official Olympic Film of the Games. It is a fictional account of the experiences and emotions that make up the entire experience of an Olympic athlete, including life “behind the scenes” and between competitions.
What was your biggest challenge?
On one of our first days, we were shooting an outdoor scene on the Olympic Plaza, but it was so cold and windy that within minutes we couldn’t feel our hands or feet. Even the camera froze! But we quickly got to know our way around the city of PyeongChang and it started to feel like home away from home.
And what was your most memorable moment? The thing you’ll never forget.
I’ll never forget the moments leading up to the Opening Ceremony and the Ceremony itself. It was so emotional, just thinking about it overwhelms me every time.
Will this experience of the Games change the way you experience the Olympic values as an athlete and as an artist?
I now have a much deeper sense of appreciation and wonder for the Olympic Games than before, something I never thought possible after my experience competing in Rio. But now I’ve had a chance to peek “behind the scenes” and learn a lot about the countless moving parts that have to come together to put on the Games – every two years no less. As a result, I’ve become even more acutely aware of the incredible passion, creativity and dedication that goes into organising them.
Is there a scene you’re particularly proud of?
I’m especially proud of all the scenes where real Winter Olympic athletes act alongside Nick Kroll (my co-star) and myself. The athletes, most of whom had never acted before, did a fantastic job and were such a pleasure to work with.
What are your biggest takeaways?
I feel that the Olympic Games are an intense, very special and unique experience that are universally relatable. I also really felt that the athletes are really all members of one big family.
What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again?
I wouldn’t change a thing. There were so many incredible, unexpected moments that I could never have planned or even imagined in advance and if I had to go back and do it all over again, some of those chance events might not happen again! That’s what makes this project, and the Games, so special! They exist in their own unique way and they live on forever.
MEET THE ARTISTS
Olympian artists at PyeongChang 2018
