Panagiotis Poikilidis (Παναγιώτης Ποικιλίδης, 27 February 1965 – 23 May 2014) was a Greek

wrestler 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 sport ...

from

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

, Macedonia, Greece. He competed at three

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 var ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

in the Super-heavyweight division, finishing fourth in 1984, eighth in 1992, and fifth in 1996. Poikilidis won the gold medal in

1991 Mediterranean Games The XI Mediterranean Games, commonly known as the 1991 Mediterranean Games, were the 11th Mediterranean Games. The Games were held in Athens, Greece, from 28 June to 12 July 1991, where 2,762 athletes (2,176 men and 586 women) from 18 countries p ...

, and the bronze in

1987 Mediterranean Games The X Mediterranean Games ( ar, ألعاب البحر الأبيض المتوسط 1987), commonly known as the 1987 Mediterranean Games, were the 10th Mediterranean Games. The Games were held in Latakia, Syria, from 11 to 25 September 1987, wher ...

. He took the fourth place in 1984 Olympic Games, but he beat the gold medalist

Jeff Blatnick Jeffrey Carl "Jeff" Blatnick (July 26, 1957 – October 24, 2012) was an American super heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler and sports commentator. He won NCAA Division II heavyweight wrestling championships in 1978 and 1979 and won the Olympic gold ...

at the first round. On 21 May 2014, while at a local hospital for check-ups, he suffered an

aortic aneurysm An aortic aneurysm is an enlargement (dilatation) of the aorta to greater than 1.5 times normal size. They usually cause no symptoms except when ruptured. Occasionally, there may be abdominal, back, or leg pain. The prevalence of abdominal aortic ...

and underwent emergency open-heart surgery. Despite initially showing signs of improvement, two days later he suffered complications including a

brain hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

from which he never recovered, and he died on the evening of 23 May at the age of 49.

Personal

His brother was the wrestler Georgios Poikilidis.

References

External links

Greek Olympic profile
1965 births 2014 deaths Wrestlers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Greek male sport wrestlers Olympic wrestlers for Greece Sportspeople from Thessaloniki Mediterranean Games medalists in wrestling Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Greece Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Greece Competitors at the 1987 Mediterranean Games Competitors at the 1991 Mediterranean Games 20th-century Greek people {{Greece-wrestling-bio-stub