Interesting read
https://www.onlineathens.com/sports/20190614/georgia-track-coach-petros-kyprianou-to-ride-for-cureGeorgia track and field coach Petros Kyprianou just finished a long season that had him going back and forth across the country until wrapping up just last weekend at the NCAA national championships Saturday in Austin, Texas.
He’s beatdown, worn out and exhausted, but rest will have to wait all in the name of curing cancer.
Kyprianou hopped on his 2018 Indian Dark Horse motorcycle in Athens on Friday for a two-week fundraising mission that will take him up to Chicago where he will begin the famed Route 66 all the way to Santa Monica, California.
The mission is to raise awareness, and money, for childhood cancer while also honoring the legacy of his father-in-law Dusan Mitosevic, who died in January 2018 of stomach cancer.
“I just want to keep his memory alive and it gives me a little motivation to hit the road right after the season,” Kyprianou said, “I’m super tired, drained physically and emotionally—to push through and thinking about childhood cancer, which is the worst in my opinion, I want to give the community and the families affected a little juice there.”
Kyprianou will “Ride for a Cure,” Cure being the organization that declares its mission as “dedicated to conquering childhood cancer through funding targeted research while supporting patients and their families.”
Kyprianoul’s goal is to raise $100,000.
His mission, according to the Cure website, is about one-third complete as he’s raised $36,500 so far.
“I know it’s not much, but knowing where the money will go, knowing the families and knowing Cure, the organization that will take the money and hand it to those families, it’s very special to me,” Kyprianou said on Wednesday as he was packing for his ride. “It will honor my father-in-law and truly try to bring awareness and really motivate people to do something similar.”
The tragic effects of cancer struck Kyprianou and his wife Masa when Mitosevic was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in late 2017.
A legendary soccer player and coach throughout Europe, Mitosevic served as a friend and mentor to Kyprianou even before he met Masa.
Last year when Georgia’s women won the NCAA indoor national title and the men won the outdoor title, Kyprianou honored his mentor and father-in-law by writing his initials in the palm of his hand during the events.
“We had a good run (in Europe) and after I came to the U.S. we became even closer,” said Kyprianou, who was a strength coach for one of Mitosevic’s soccer teams. “We’d go back, have a beer and we’d talk about coaching and he’d give me advice. It kind of marked my career, really, about how to become a good head coach and get the most out of athletes and become one of the best like he was.”
Kyprianou and Masa have two children, but he will complete his mission alone with just the 2018 Indian Dark Horse and a backpack with all his needed belongings.
Stops along the route will bring the cameras of ESPN and the SEC Network, which will document Kyprianou’s progress for future programming, and hopefully, Kyprianou says, raise even more awareness for his cause.
Two-wheeled vehicles have long fascinated Kyprianou, who received his first 50cc “1980 Yamaha something” scooter when he was 14 and living on his home island of Cypress.
While in college at Boise State, Kyprianou bought cheap motorcycles that he would fix up and ride. He claims he never had a car until he was 25 years old.
But now, as a successful coach, he has bought his “baby” that he will ride for 2,448 along Route 66.
“I’m going to go old school—no wind screen, no bags, no nothing,” Kyprianou said. “Just a backpack and a bike. I don’t know if I’m going to regret that halfway through, but I’m going to push through it.”
To contribute to Kyprianou’s cause, donations can be made at curechildhoodcancer.org/coachpetros/.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now,” Kyprianou said. “Growing up and kind of dreaming about this. It’s not an easy decision...but you’ve just got to do it, you’ve got to gear up and go.”
