Paolo Nicolai (born 8 June 1988) is an Italian beach volleyball player.
Biography
Nicolai was born in
Ortona,
province of Chieti
The province of Chieti ( it, provincia di Chieti; Abruzzese: ') is a province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city Chieti, which has a population of 50,770 inhabitants. The province has a total population of 387,6 ...
. In 2007 and 2008, he won the
FIVB Youth Beach Volleyball World Championships (with Francesco Giontella).
From 2009 he played with different partners (Matteo Varnier and
Matteo Martino), becoming an Italian champion once, until in 2011 the Italian federation had him partnered with
Daniele Lupo. Lupo and Nicolai qualified for the
2012 Olympic Games, where they were eliminated by the Dutch team
Nummerdor-
Schuil in the quarter-finals. Nicolai was elected FIVB Most Improved Player 2012.
Lupo and Nicolai won the
Beach Volleyball European World Championships twice, once in 2014 and again in 2016. A series of podiums in the
World Tour also granted them the qualification for the
2016 Summer Olympics, where they reached the final, winning the silver medal.
They reached the final, despite having to qualify as "lucky losers" from the pool stage.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolai, Paolo
1988 births
Living people
Italian beach volleyball players
Beach volleyball blockers
Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Olympic beach volleyball players of Italy
Beach volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic silver medalists for Italy
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic medalists in beach volleyball
People from Ortona
Beach volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from the Province of Chieti
21st-century Italian people