Greece competed at the
2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
,
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. They were represented by the
Hellenic Olympic Committee
The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) ( el, Ελληνική Ολυμπιακή Επιτροπή) is the governing Olympic body of Greece. It is the second oldest National Olympic Committee in the world (after the French Olympic Committee), it ...
, which announced on July 28, 2008, the 156
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
athletes to compete in Beijing, composed of 84 men and 72 women, the largest Greek Olympic team ever excluding the home team of the Athens 2004 Olympics. Greece took part in
archery,
athletics
Athletics may refer to:
Sports
* Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking
** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport
* Athletics (physical culture), competi ...
,
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
,
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
,
canoeing,
cycling
Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from t ...
,
diving,
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...
,
judo
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...
,
rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...
,
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cou ...
,
shooting,
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
,
synchronized swimming,
table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
,
taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...
,
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
,
triathlon
A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...
,
beach volleyball,
water polo
Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...
,
weightlifting
Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...
and
wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
.
As the progenitor nation of the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
, and in keeping with tradition, Greece entered the
Beijing National Stadium first during the
opening ceremony, led by the
judo
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...
ka
Ilias Iliadis, who won a gold medal at the
2004 Summer Olympics 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 ...
.
The Greek team was originally awarded two silver and two bronze medals. In all four medal cases there was participation by athletes who were also medalists at the
2004 Summer Olympics in Athens (in the case of groups, at least one of their members was a former medalist).
Alexandros Nikolaidis won a second olympic silver medal,
Vasileios Polymeros was second after his third place in Athens (along with
Dimitrios Mougios), while the golden medalist of 2004
Sofia Bekatorou led the yngling class team to the third place.
Hrysopiyi Devetzi was third, but eight years later (2016) she was disqualified by IAAF and the IOC and had her Olympic bronze medal annulled due to stanozol use.
Medalists
Archery
Greece will send archers to the Olympics for the third time, seeking the nation's first Olympic medal in the sport.
Elpida Romantzi earned the country its first qualifying spot, in the women's competition, by placing 36th in the
2007 World Outdoor Target Championships
The 2007 World Archery Championships was the 44th edition of the event. It was held in Leipzig, Germany on 7–15 July 2007 and was organized by International Archery Federation (FITA).http://old.archery.org/EventResults/ResultSummary.aspx?e=27 ...
.
[FITA Olympic Qualification - Women]
/ref> Evangelia Psarra placed third at the European qualifying tournament, giving Greece a second spot in the women's individual competition.[Continental Quota Tournament Final Ranking]
/ref>
Athletics
;Men
;Track & road events
;Field events
;Women
;Track & road events
;Field events
;Combined events – Heptathlon
Basketball
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
qualified for the men's basketball tournament through the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men 2008.
Men's tournament
;Roster
;Group play
;Quarterfinals
Boxing
Greece qualified two boxers for the Olympic boxing tournament. Both qualified at the second European continental qualifying tournament.[2nd AIBA European Olympic Boxing Qualifying Tournament]
Canoeing
Slalom
Sprint
Qualification Legend: QS = Qualify to semi-final; QF = Qualify directly to final
Cycling
Track
Greece will have entries in the men's Keirin and team sprint.
;Sprint
;Keirin
Diving
Gymnastics
Artistic
;Men
;Women
Rhythmic
Judo
Rowing
;Men
;Women
Qualification Legend: FA=Final A (medal); FB=Final B (non-medal); FC=Final C (non-medal); FD=Final D (non-medal); FE=Final E (non-medal); FF=Final F (non-medal); SA/B=Semifinals A/B; SC/D=Semifinals C/D; SE/F=Semifinals E/F; QF=Quarterfinals; R=Repechage
Sailing
;Men
;Women
;Open
M = Medal race; EL = Eliminated – did not advance into the medal race;
Shooting
;Men
Swimming
;Men
;Women
Synchronized swimming
Table tennis
;Singles
;Team
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball
Beach
Greece has two teams in the women's Olympic beach volleyball tournament.
Water polo
Greece participated in both the men's and the women's tournaments. The men's team finished in 7th place, while the women's team finished in 8th place.
Men's tournament
;Roster
;Group play
All times are China Standard Time
The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time), even though the country spans almost five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called ''Beijing T ...
(UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.
With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...
).
;Classification quarterfinal
;Classification semifinal
;Classification 7th–8th
Women's tournament
;Roster
;Group play
All times are China Standard Time
The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time), even though the country spans almost five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called ''Beijing T ...
(UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.
With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...
).
;Classification 7th–8th
Weightlifting
11 competitors were banned after testing positive for drugs.
Wrestling
;Men's freestyle
;Men's Greco-Roman
See also
* Greece at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
References
{{Nations at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Nations at the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008
Summer Olympics