Alexandros Nikolaidis (17 October 1979 – 14 October 2022) was a Greek

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...

athlete. He was named the 2008

Greek Male Athlete of the Year The PSAT Sports Awards (Greek: Αθλητικά Βραβεία ΠΣΑΤ) are the annual sports awards that are issued by the Panhellenic Sports Press Association (PSAT). The awards are given to the year's top performing individual athletes, in th ...

. Initially the home favorite, he won the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

at the

2004 Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

held in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

after losing to Moon Dae-Sung of South Korea in the gold medal match. On 24 March 2008, Alexandros Nikolaidis had the honour to be the first torch-bearer of the

2008 Summer Olympics torch relay The 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from March 24 until August 8, 2008, prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics, with the theme of "one world, one dream". Plans for the relay were announced on April 26, 2007, in Beijing, China. The relay, al ...

. Later in the same year on 11 April, he won the European Championship in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. At the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, Nikolaidis won another Olympic silver medal in the +80 kg category, after losing to Cha Dong-Min of South Korea in the final. In July 2011, he managed to secure a place at the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

by placing third in the

2011 World Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament The 2011 World Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament for the London Olympic Games was held at the Sarhadchi Olympic Center in Baku, Azerbaijan from June 30 to July 3, 2011. Each country may enter maximum 2 male and 2 female divisions with ...

in Baku, Azerbaijan by defeating

Liu Xiaobo Liu Xiaobo (; 28 December 1955 – 13 July 2017) was a Chinese writer, literary critic, human rights activist, philosopher and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who called for political reforms and was involved in campaigns to end communist one-par ...

of China in the 3rd place play-off. He carried the flag for Greece during the Parade of Nations at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. On 11 August 2012, Nikolaidis began and ended his Olympics participation in a "preliminary round" bout against

Bahri Tanrikulu Bahri ( ar, بحري) is a masculine Arabic given name, Bahri is also a surname in Punjabi Khatri families of India. Given name * Huseyin Bahri Alptekin (1957-2007), Turkish artist * Bahri Tanrıkulu (born 1980), Turkish taekwondo athlete Surnam ...

. Nikolaidis lost 7–3 overall. Nikolaidis retired in 2014. He died on 14 October 2022, at the age of 42. Nikolaidis had been suffering from an "extremely rare" form of cancer for two years prior to his death.

References

1979 births 2022 deaths Sportspeople from Thessaloniki Greek male taekwondo practitioners Olympic taekwondo practitioners of Greece Olympic silver medalists for Greece Taekwondo practitioners at the 2000 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2004 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2008 Summer Olympics Taekwondo practitioners at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in taekwondo Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics European champions for Greece Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Greece Competitors at the 2013 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in taekwondo European Taekwondo Championships medalists World Taekwondo Championships medalists 21st-century Greek people {{Greece-taekwondo-bio-stub