The second Siege of Paros began with an Ironman that never happened.
In 2021, Sam took a month off to train on Paros for his first Ironman. He went all in: swim, bike, run, recover, repeat. By the end of it, he was fitter than ever and convinced Kona might be within reach.
A few days later, on his final long training ride in Belgium, he crashed into the back of a car.
Sixty stitches, one broken tooth and one missed Ironman later, something changed.
What followed was less about getting back to where he had been, and more about figuring out where he actually wanted to go.
Paros stayed with him.
Earlier that summer, Sam had walked into an art shop on the island and met Panos’ wife. She decided the two would probably get along and put them in touch.
She was right.
A year later, Sam and Panos finally met.
On bikes, of course.
They became training partners, close friends and something like brain buddies.
Panos is Parian, curious and analytical, with an entrepreneurial streak. He has biked, run and hiked the island so extensively that he knows Paros like the back of his hand. An engineer by training, he has spent his career in the energy transition — helping build and scale a fast-growing organisation, and now working at the intersection of strategy, growth and complex systems.
Sam is based in Brussels and has spent every summer of the past twenty years on Paros. A restless learner and change-maker, his career has moved across finance, mobility, energy and education — usually where there was something to build, scale or rethink. The thread throughout: building things that create positive change, and making the sustainable choice the obvious one.
Sam tends to start from possibility: what could this become?
Panos tends to start from systems: how do we make it actually work?
Both are builders. They just approach things from different directions.
They also shared the same concern.
Every summer, more of Paros seemed to give way to construction. Tourism brought prosperity, but the question became harder to ignore: how could the island continue to thrive without slowly consuming what makes it special?
So they talked. Usually while riding.
About Paros, and what it could become.
One question kept returning:
Could we bring people to Paros not simply to take from the island, but to give something back?
Then came the idea of games.
The Olympic Games. The Marathon. So much of what we now associate with endurance and competition traces back to Greece. Why not create something new here?
Then came the ancient story of Miltiades and the Siege of Paros.
And suddenly, the pieces started to fit together.
A second Siege. More than 2,500 years later. With a very different purpose.
And that became Siege of Paros.
It started with two people. It won’t be built by two people.
Today, co-founders, advisors and partners from Paros, Greece and beyond are gradually becoming part of the movement.
We’ll introduce them here as the Siege unfolds.
For now, this is where it started.
The second Siege of Paros began with an Ironman that never happened.
In 2021, Sam took a month off to train on Paros for his first Ironman. He went all in: swim, bike, run, recover, repeat. By the end of it, he was fitter than ever and convinced Kona might be within reach.
A few days later, on his final long training ride in Belgium, he crashed into the back of a car.
Sixty stitches, one broken tooth and one missed Ironman later, something changed.
What followed was less about getting back to where he had been, and more about figuring out where he actually wanted to go.
Paros stayed with him.
Earlier that summer, Sam had walked into an art shop on the island and met Panos’ wife. She decided the two would probably get along and put them in touch.
She was right.
A year later, Sam and Panos finally met.
On bikes, of course.
They became training partners, close friends and something like brain buddies.
Panos is Parian, curious and analytical, with an entrepreneurial streak. He has biked, run and hiked the island so extensively that he knows Paros like the back of his hand. An engineer by training, he has spent his career in the energy transition — helping build and scale a fast-growing organisation, and now working at the intersection of strategy, growth and complex systems.
Sam is based in Brussels and has spent every summer of the past twenty years on Paros. A restless learner and change-maker, his career has moved across finance, mobility, energy and education — usually where there was something to build, scale or rethink. The thread throughout: building things that create positive change, and making the sustainable choice the obvious one.
Sam tends to start from possibility: what could this become?
Panos tends to start from systems: how do we make it actually work?
Both are builders. They just approach things from different directions.
They also shared the same concern.
Every summer, more of Paros seemed to give way to construction. Tourism brought prosperity, but the question became harder to ignore: how could the island continue to thrive without slowly consuming what makes it special?
So they talked. Usually while riding.
About Paros, and what it could become.
One question kept returning:
Could we bring people to Paros not simply to take from the island, but to give something back?
Then came the idea of games.
The Olympic Games. The Marathon. So much of what we now associate with endurance and competition traces back to Greece. Why not create something new here?
Then came the ancient story of Miltiades and the Siege of Paros.
And suddenly, the pieces started to fit together.
A second Siege. More than 2,500 years later. With a very different purpose.
And that became Siege of Paros.
It started with two people. It won’t be built by two people.
Today, co-founders, advisors and partners from Paros, Greece and beyond are gradually becoming part of the movement.
We’ll introduce them here as the Siege unfolds.
For now, this is where it started.
