Alexandros Nikolaidis Obituary, Funeral

Greece’s two-time Olympic silver medallist and flagbearer at London 2012 Alexandros Nikolaidis who had been battling with NUT carcinoma, a rare form of cancer in the last two years has died at age 42.

He was born on 17 October 1979 and died on Oct. 13, 2022.

Nikolaidis won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics held in Athens after losing to Moon Dae-Sung of South Korea in the gold medal match.

Four years later during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he repeated the same feat, winning another Olympic silver medal in the +80 kg category. He lost to Cha Dong-Min of South Korea in the final.

He carried the flag for Greece during the Parade of Nations at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and on Aug. 11 of the same year, he began and ended his Olympics participation in a “preliminary round” bout against Bahri Tanrikulu after losing 7–3 overall.

Nikolaidis retired in 2014 and entered politics, rising to become a deputy spokesman for the main opposition party Syriza.

Nikolaidis is survived by his wife and two children.