When Neos Kosmos last spoke to figure skater Hektor Giotopoulos Moore in 2022, he was coming off being stuck in Russia for a year and a half due to COVID.
Since then he has enjoyed three full senior seasons with his skating partner Anastasia Golubeva.
They competed in three ISU World Championship events and placed in the top 10 each time.
In the most recent one — the 2025 ISU World Championships held in Boston, USA — they placed 9th, which qualified them for a spot at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
Last year at the ISU Grand Prix Skate Canada in Halifax, the pair took home the bronze medal, becoming the first-ever Australians to win a medal at an ISU Grand Prix event.
And in the past two ISU Four Continents Championships, Hektor and Anastasia placed in the top 6 and are now working towards a podium finish this season.
Hektor was born in Melbourne to his Greek mother Xanthippe and UK and Austrian heritage father, Marcus.
“My family has always been the source of my greatest support — from helping me travel around the world, to showing up at competitions when I was little, to my sister making costumes and my big brother helping me with ballet on the side, and my little brother standing by my side no matter how long I left him for,” Hektor told Neos Kosmos.
“Every member of my family has made huge sacrifices to help me get to where I am today, and I couldn’t be more grateful to all of them — especially my parents.
“They’ve always been there for me during the hard times and have always had my back, just as they still do.”
Hektor said he’s proud and grateful to represent Australia on the world stage, a country with a small skating scene compared to the rest of the world.
He also feels that he is representing the Greek community, and is incredibly proud to be doing so.
“In my sport, there is very little representation of Greek people, so I’m happy to represent Greeks from all around the world,” he said.
“I’ve even had a few figure skating fans from Greece reach out to me to say they were appreciative and grateful to see someone of their heritage represented in figure skating.
“However, if my Yiayia didn’t love me so much, she’d probably kill me — because after spending so much time living and training in Russia over the years, I now speak more Russian than Greek. Yiayia, please forgive me!”
Now Hektor’s goal is stay healthy and injury free and he trains in the lead-up to the next Olympics.
The Australian Sports Foundation has set up a fundraiser for Hektor and Anastasia’s Olympic journey. More info can be found at the ASF website.
