Nikolaos Kourtidis ( gr, Νικόλαος Κουρτίδης; born April 1, 1986) is a Greek

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lift ...

of Georgian origin. At age eighteen, Kourtidis made his official debut for the

2004 Summer 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), ...

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 ...

, representing the host nation

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 with ...

. He successfully lifted 377.5 kg in the men's middle-heavyweight category (94 kg), finishing in eleventh place. At the

2008 Summer 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 Na ...

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 ...

, Kourtidis competed this time for the men's heavyweight category (105 kg). He placed ninth in this event, as he successfully lifted 176 kg in the single-motion snatch, and hoisted 221 kg in a two-part, shoulder-to-overhead

clean and jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without res ...

, for a total of 397 kg. In 2009 Kourtidis failed a doping test.Two Greek weightlifters fail doping tests, federation says
.

References

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Greek male weightlifters Greek people of Georgian descent 1986 births Living people Olympic weightlifters for Greece Weightlifters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Doping cases in weightlifting Greek sportspeople in doping cases Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Greece Mediterranean Games medalists in weightlifting Competitors at the 2005 Mediterranean Games Sportspeople from Kavala 21st-century Greek people {{Greece-weightlifting-bio-stub