In March 2021, I will row across the Atlantic Ocean with four others, a grueling 6,000km challenge that will push mind and body to the limit. Georgios Ardavanis is one of the team members of Team EU
Georgios was always involved extensively in competitive sports, including track, basketball, and tennis. While a university student, he was invited in the Greek Davis Cup squad for trials. In his early 40s, he became involved in extreme adventures and expeditions.
“I am not a fan of a conventional ordinary life with some pleasant moments of very short duration, like an orgasm, and then nothing. I am not looking for the safe confines of normality. Instead, I am looking for those unique living difficult moments with pain, which altogether are worth a lifetime of glory. I want to achieve immortality by adding my name to a handful of achievers’ lists. “
He said he strongly believes that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
“I am not doing these extreme expeditions to show how good I am, on the contrary, I want to show how good I want to be. I want to live a life full of speed, according to my dreams, expectations, and values that make me happier. I want to be the best among the best because my soul is unconquerable,” he said
His past expeditions include climbing rock formations in Greece and Bulgaria (2005), Nepal (2006), Russia and Mt Kilimanjaro (2007), and Argentina (2008).
Georgios completed the tough Marathon Des Sables in Sahara Morocco (251 km) in 2008, only the second Greek participant in the history of that event.
Over the next few years, Georgios competed in marathons (including back-to-back marathons in Chicago and Toronto in 2013), triathlons, and ultra-triathlons.
In 2016, he attempted his first ocean rowing challenge, while in 2017, he competed in a Hellathlon in Greece – 760km of cycling, climbing, running, and cycling again.
Completing the rowing challenge in March does not mean Georgios will stop – also this year, he will attempt to cycle across the US and climb the five Himalaya summits back-to-back. Next year, he is planning to sail across the Pacific Ocean in a tall ship. IN 2023, he will cycle the Silk Road from Beijing to Istanbul followed by the Tour D’ Afrique (Cairo – Cape Town) cycling trip a year later.
Georgios holds a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering (Villanova University/USA), MBA (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute/USA), PhD in Environmental Engineering (Technical University of Sofia/BG), and Advanced Executive Studies in Engineering Management (MIT/USA). Also, he studied at the National Conservatory of Greece.
He is a career systems engineer and Technical Director with 30+ years of international experience in railway systems, and infrastructure projects in the USA, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria, West Indies, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Oman, Egypt, Qatar, Dubai, and India. He develops and implements highly complex long-range engineering projects from conceptual and detailed design to implementation, installation and test and commissioning in system engineering, integration, and data analytics covering every phase of engineering, technology, operations, value chain management, system planning, system migration, critical design gate reviews per V-cycle, quality engineering, system assurance.