Greece at the 2008 Summer Olympics explained

Noc:	GRE
Nocname:	Hellenic Olympic Committee
Games:	Summer Olympics
Year:	2008
Website:
Competitors:	156
Sports:	22
Flagbearer:	Ilias Iliadis (opening) Hrysopiyi Devetzi (closing)
Rank:	58
Gold:	0
Silver:	2
Bronze:	1
Appearances:	auto
See also:	1906 Intercalated Games

Greece competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. They were represented by the Hellenic Olympic Committee, which announced on July 28, 2008, the 156 Greek athletes to compete in Beijing, composed of 84 men and 72 women,^[1] the largest Greek Olympic team ever excluding the home team of the Athens 2004 Olympics.^[2] Greece took part in archery, athletics, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, diving, gymnastics, judo, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, beach volleyball, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling.

As the progenitor nation of the Olympic Games, and in keeping with tradition, Greece entered the Beijing National Stadium first during the opening ceremony, led by the judoka Ilias Iliadis, who won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

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^[3] due to stanozol use.

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event
			Men's lightweight double sculls
			Men's +80 kg
			Women's yngling class

Archery

See main article: Archery at the 2008 Summer Olympics. 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.^[4] Evangelia Psarra placed third at the European qualifying tournament, giving Greece a second spot in the women's individual competition.^[5]

Athlete	Event	Ranking round		Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final /
		Score	Seed	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Evangelia Psarra	align=left rowspan=2	Women's individual	613	50	(15) L 101–110	Did not advance
Elpida Romantzi	614	49	(16) W 105–103	(17) W 102 (10)–102 (9)	(1) L 103–115	Did not advance

Athletics

See main article: Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Men

Track & road events

Athlete	Event	Heat		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Konstadinos Douvalidis	110 m hurdles	13.49	1 Q	13.46	4 q	13.55	5	Did not advance
Periklis Iakovakis	400 m hurdles	49.50	2 Q	48.69		4 Q	49.96	8
Konstadinos Stefanopoulos	50 km walk	4:07:53						37
Konstadinos Anastasiou Stylianos Dimotsios Dimitrios Gravalos Pantelis Melachroinoudis	4 × 400 m relay	3:04.30	7	Did not advance

Field events

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Final
		Distance	Position	Distance	Position
Konstadinos Baniotis	High jump	2.10	37	Did not advance
Alexandros Papadimitriou	Hammer throw	74.33	18	Did not advance
Ioannis-Georgios Smalios	Javelin throw	71.87	27	Did not advance
Mihail Stamatoyiannis	Shot put	18.45	36	Did not advance
Louis Tsatoumas	Long jump	8.27	1 Q		—
Dimitrios Tsiamis	Triple jump	16.65	23	Did not advance

Women

Track & road events

Athlete	Event	Heat		Semifinal		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Eleni Donta	Marathon	2:46:44	60
Dimitra Dova	400 m	52.69	5	Did not advance
Konstadina Efedaki	1500 m	4:15:02	10	Did not advance
Irini Kokkinariou	3000 m steeplechase	10:22.39	15	Did not advance
Flora Redoumi	100 m hurdles	13.56	7	Did not advance
Athanasia Tsoumeleka	align=left rowspan=3	20 km walk	1:27:54
Evaggelia Xinou	1:32:19	25
Despina Zapounidou	1:39:11	41

Field events

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Final
		Distance	Position	Distance	Position
align=left rowspan=2	Hrysopiyi Devetzi	Long jump	6.57	14	Did not advance
Triple jump	14.92	2 Q	15.23
Dorothea Kalpakidou	Discus throw	53.00	35	Did not advance
Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou	Pole vault	4.15	27	Did not advance
Savva Lika	Javelin throw	59.11	15	Did not advance
Stiliani Papadopoulou	align=left rowspan=2	Hammer throw	69.36	12 q	64.97	11
Alexandra Papageorgiou	66.72	28	Did not advance
Athanasia Perra	Triple jump		—	Did not advance
Afroditi Skafida	Pole vault	4.30	16	Did not advance
Antonia Stergiou	High jump	1.85	24	Did not advance
Irini Terzoglou	Shot put	16.50	26	Did not advance

Combined events – Heptathlon

Athlete	Event				200 m			800 m	Final	Rank
Argyro Strataki	Result	14.05	1.68	13.22	25.47	5.97	45.20	2:14.57	5893	24
Points	971	830	742	844	840	767	899

Basketball

See main article: Basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Greece qualified for the men's basketball tournament through the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men 2008.

Men's tournament

See main article: Basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament.

Roster

Group play

Quarterfinals

Boxing

See main article: Boxing at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Greece qualified two boxers for the Olympic boxing tournament. Both qualified at the second European continental qualifying tournament.^[6]

Athlete	Event	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Georgios Gazis	Middleweight	W 7–2	L 1–12	Did not advance
Elias Pavlidis	Heavyweight		W 7–3	L 4–7	Did not advance

Canoeing

See main article: Canoeing at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Slalom

Athlete	Event	Preliminary						Semifinal		Final
		Run 1	Rank	Run 2	Rank	Total	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Total	Rank
Christos Tsakmakis	Men's C-1	91.53	10	86.01	5	177.54	8 Q	92.18	6 Q	94.49	7	186.67	7
Maria Ferekidi	Women's K-1	108.37	13	113.60	19	221.97	12 Q	118.99	11	Did not advance

Sprint

Athlete	Event	Heats		Semifinals		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
align=left rowspan=2	Andreas Kiligkaridis	Men's C-1 500 m	1:54.541	5 QS	1:56.310	5	Did not advance
Men's C-1 1000 m	4:18.488	5 QS	4:04.627	5	Did not advance

Qualification Legend: QS = Qualify to semi-final; QF = Qualify directly to final

Cycling

See main article: Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Track

Greece will have entries in the men's Keirin and team sprint.

Sprint

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Round 1	Round 2	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Time Speed (km/h)	Rank	Opposition Time Speed (km/h)	Opposition Time Speed (km/h)	Opposition Time Speed (km/h)	Opposition Time Speed (km/h)	Opposition Time Speed (km/h)	Rank
Vasileios Reppas	Men's sprint	10.966 65.657	20	Did not advance
Athanasios Mantzouranis Vasileios Reppas Panagiotis Voukelatos	Men's team sprint	45.645 59.152	10	Did not advance

Keirin

Athlete	Event	1st round	Repechage	2nd round	Finals
		Rank	Rank	Rank	Rank
Athanasios Mantzouranis	align=left rowspan=2	Men's keirin	5 R	3	Did not advance
Christos Volikakis	5 R	2	Did not advance

Diving

See main article: Diving at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Gymnastics

See main article: Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Artistic

Men

Athlete	Event	Qualification								Final
		Apparatus						Total	Rank	Apparatus						Total	Rank
align=left rowspan=2	Vlasios Maras	Vault	15.987	15.987	11	Did not advance
Horizontal bar	13.975	13.975	60	Did not advance

Women

Rhythmic

Judo

See main article: Judo at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Athlete	Event	Preliminary	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Repechage 3	Final /
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Lavrentios Alexanidis	Men's −60 kg		W 1000–0000	L 0000–0001	Did not advance		L 0010–1001	Did not advance
Tariel Zintiridis	Men's −66 kg		L 0000–0010	Did not advance
Ilias Iliadis	Men's −90 kg		L 0001–1010	Did not advance

Rowing

See main article: Rowing at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Men

Athlete	Event	Heats		Repechage		Quarterfinals		Semifinals		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Ioannis Christou	Single sculls	7:29.87	3 QF	6:58.28	3 SA/B	7:06.02	4 FB	7:06.02	10
Dimitrios Mougios Vasileios Polymeros	Lightweight double sculls	6:16.10	2 SA/B	6:24.61	1 FA	6:11.72

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

See main article: Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Men

Athlete	Event	Race											Net points	Final rank
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	M*
Nikolaos Kaklamanakis	RS:X	10	2	12	11	8	10	5	15	10	7	OCS	97	8
Evangelos Cheimonas	Laser	22	21	9	11	DSQ	BFD	9	6	8	CAN	EL	130	15
Andreas Kosmatopoulos Andreas Papadopoulos	470	5	26	11	8	5	5	18	3	20	29	EL	101	12

Women

Athlete	Event	Race											Net points	Final rank
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	M*
Athina Frai	RS:X	15	15	16	10	19	5	11	9	15	11	EL	107	14
Efi Mantzaraki	Laser Radial	14	18	14	18	16	8	5	22	24	CAN	EL	115	18
Sofia Bekatorou Virginia Kravarioti Sofia Papadopoulou	Yngling	10	12	9	3	2	OCS	3	3	CAN	CAN	6	48

Open

Athlete	Event	Race											Net points	Final rank
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	M*
Aimilios Papathanasiou	Finn	1	DNF	5	DNF	18	15	DNF	8	CAN	CAN	EL	101	15
Iordanis Paschalidis Konstantinos Trigonis	Tornado	2	5	12	7	2	12	4	10	6	13	DNF	82	9

M = Medal race; EL = Eliminated – did not advance into the medal race;

Shooting

See main article: Shooting at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Men

Swimming

See main article: Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Men

Athlete	Event	Heat		Semifinal		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
align=left rowspan=4	Romanos Alyfantis	100 m breaststroke	1:03.39	50	Did not advance
200 m breaststroke	2:16.04	41	Did not advance
200 m butterfly	1:57.99	26	Did not advance
400 m individual medley	4:23.41	25	Did not advance
Dimitrios Chasiotis	200 m backstroke	2:02.30	36	Did not advance
Vasileios Demetis	400 m individual medley	4:18.40	18	Did not advance
align=left rowspan=3	Spyridon Gianniotis	400 m freestyle	3:49.34	24	Did not advance
1500 m freestyle	14:53.32	12	Did not advance
10 km open water	1:52:20.4	16
align=left rowspan=2	Aristeidis Grigoriadis	100 m freestyle	50.62	48	Did not advance
100 m backstroke	54.71	17	Did not advance
Ioannis Kokkodis	200 m individual medley	2:01.22	23	Did not advance
Sotirios Pastras	100 m butterfly	52.41 NR	25	Did not advance
Apostolos Tsagkarakis	50 m freestyle	22.39	26	Did not advance
Andreas Zisimos	200 m freestyle	1:48.82	29	Did not advance
Vasileios Demetis Ioannis Giannoulis Nikolaos Xylouris Andreas Zisimos	4 × 200 m freestyle relay	7:18.26	15	Did not advance

Women

Athlete	Event	Heat		Semifinal		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Stella Boumi	200 m backstroke	2:14.73	29	Did not advance
align=left rowspan=3	Eleftheria Evgenia Efstathiou	400 m freestyle	4:15.78	27	Did not advance
800 m freestyle	8:41.65	28	Did not advance
200 m butterfly	2:13.27	29	Did not advance
align=left rowspan=2	Angeliki Exarchou	100 m breaststroke	1:10.47	30	Did not advance
200 m breaststroke	2:36.83	39	Did not advance
Eirini Kavarnou	100 m butterfly	1:00.74	41	Did not advance
align=left rowspan=2	Eleni Kosti	100 m freestyle	56.44	37	Did not advance
200 m freestyle	2:04.55	44	Did not advance
Marianna Lymperta	10 km open water	1:59:42.3	11
Martha Matsa	50 m freestyle	25.68	33	Did not advance

Synchronized swimming

See main article: Synchronized swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Table tennis

See main article: Table tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Singles

Athlete	Event	Preliminary round	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final /
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Panagiotis Gionis	align=left rowspan=2	Men's singles		W 4–0	L 3–4	Did not advance
Kalinikos Kreanga	W 4–1	L 0–4	Did not advance

Team

Taekwondo

See main article: Taekwondo at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Athlete	Event	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage	Bronze medal	Final
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Alexandros Nikolaidis	Men's +80 kg	W 4–3	W 5–4	W 3–2	L 4–5
Elisavet Mystakidou	Women's −67 kg	L 0–1	Did not advance
Kyriaki Kouvari	Women's +67 kg	L 1–3	Did not advance

Tennis

See main article: Tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Eleni Daniilidou	Women's singles	L 3–6, 3–6	Did not advance
Eleni Daniilidou Anna Gerasimou	Women's doubles		L 0–6, 4–6	Did not advance

Triathlon

See main article: Triathlon at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Volleyball

See main article: Volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Beach

Greece has two teams in the women's Olympic beach volleyball tournament.

Athlete	Event	Preliminary round	Standing	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final /
		Opposition Score		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Vassiliki Arvaniti Vasso Karantasiou	align=left rowspan=2	Women's	Pool F L 0 – 2 (18–21, 18–21) L 1 – 2 (17–21, 21–16, 12–15) L 0 – 2 (20–22, 19–21)	4	Did not advance
Efthalia Koutroumanidou Maria Tsiartsiani	Pool D L 1 – 2 (18–21, 21–19, 12–15) W 2 – 0 (21–12, 21–8) L 0 – 2 (22–24, 12–21)	3 Q	L 1 – 2 (20–22, 21–19, 12–15)	Did not advance

Water polo

See main article: Water polo at the 2008 Summer Olympics. 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

See main article: Water polo at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament.

Roster

Group playAll times are China Standard Time (UTC+8).

Classification quarterfinal

Classification semifinal

Classification 7th–8th

Women's tournament

See main article: Water polo at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament.

Roster

Group playAll times are China Standard Time (UTC+8).

Classification 7th–8th

Weightlifting

See main article: Weightlifting at the 2008 Summer Olympics. 11 competitors were banned after testing positive for drugs.^[7]

Athlete	Event	Snatch		Clean & Jerk		Total	Rank
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Konstantinos Gkaripis	align=left rowspan=2	Men's −94 kg	160	16	200	13	360	14
Anastasios Triantafyllou	155	17	196	15	351	15
Nikolaos Kourtidis	Men's −105 kg	176	12	221	9	397	9
Victoria Mavridou	Women's +75 kg	105	9	126	10	231	9

Wrestling

See main article: Wrestling at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Men's freestyle

Men's Greco-Roman

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final /
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Theodoros Tounousidis	−96 kg		L 1–3	Did not advance					=17
Panagiotis Papadopoulos	−120 kg	L 1–3	Did not advance						18

See also

• Greece at the 2008 Summer Paralympics

Notes and References

1. Web site: http://www.in.gr/sports/article.asp?lngEntityID=923015&lngDtrID=246 . el:Η πλήρης ελληνική αποστολή για το Πεκίνο με 156 αθλητές . www.in.gr . el . 2008-07-28 . 2008-08-26.
2. Web site: Greece to send record number of athletes to Beijing Olympics . https://web.archive.org/web/20080713111754/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/10/content_8520980.htm . dead . July 13, 2008 . www.chinaview.cn . 2008-07-10 . 2008-08-26.
3. Web site: IAAF strips triple-jumper Devetzi from Bronze Medal in Beijing Olympics 2008 . www.keeptalkinggreece.com/. 2016-09-28. 2016-11-18.
4. http://www.archery.org/UserFiles/Document/Olympic%20Games/2008_OG_Beijing/0713_OlympicQuota_Women.pdf FITA Olympic Qualification - Women
5. Web site: Continental Quota Tournament Final Ranking . 2008-05-15 . 2008-05-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080528140709/http://www.sportsregions.fr/data/master/ffta-com/Documents/CQT/Etat_clt_final_RW.PDF . dead .
6. http://www.aiba.org/default.aspx?pId=1231 2nd AIBA European Olympic Boxing Qualifying Tournament
7. News: Breaking News - Headlines & Top Stories | the Star . Toronto . The Star . 22 December 2023 .