Ilias Iliadis

Who is Ilias Iliadis?

Ilias Iliadis is a Georgian-born Greek judoka who has been competing for Greece since the start of his international career.

He won a gold medal in the half-middleweight division at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens at age 17. Illiadis also won a gold medal 6 years later at the 2010 World Judo Championships in Tokyo in the −90kg category.

As Greece's flagbearer, he had the honour of being the first athlete to march into the Bird's Nest Stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Iliadis is a cousin of another Olympic champion, Georgian judoka Zurab Zviadauri, who also won gold at the 2004 Summer Olympic games. Iliadis's family moved to Greece in the 90's. He was adopted by Nikos Iliadis.