Paraskevi “Voula” Papachristou is a Greek triple jumper and long jumper. She won two gold medals at the European Athletics U23 Championships and represented Greece at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. She was removed from the Greek team for the 2012 London Olympics by the Greek Olympic Committee after making an insensitive comment online in 2011. She participated in the 2016 Summer Olympics’ final in Rio de Janeiro, taking 8th place.
Voula Papachristou was born on April 17, 1989, in Athens. She won the bronze medal at the 2008 World Junior Championships and competed in the 2009 European Indoor Championships and went through the qualification round with a jump of 14.47 meters. However, in the final, she was injured and failed to register a valid jump. After taking the bronze medal at the 2009 Mediterranean Games, Voula Papachristou competed at the 2009 World Championships without reaching the final round. She won the gold medal at the 2009 European U23 Championships that season.
Paraskevi “Voula” Papachristou was to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics but was expelled from the Greek team on 25 July 2012 after racist comments from her Twitter account. In May 2013, the Greek athletics federation suspended her athletic benefits effective from January 4, 2013, stating that the athlete’s benefits would be reinstated if she began training with an approved coach and resumed high-level competition. Voula Papachristou took a break from track and returned in 2015 – after the birth of her daughter – with George Pomaski as a trainer. At the 2016 World Indoor Championships in Portland, she won the bronze medal at the European Championships in Amsterdam. At the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she took eighth place.