Georgia-born Greek judoka Ilias Iliadis, who was honored to be the first athlete to march through the Bird’s Nest Stadium at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, is one of the greatest judokas of all time.
He started competing for Greece in international competitions since he was a child, and he won his gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, at the age of 17 in the 81 kg category, becoming the youngest Olympic judo champion in history.
Iliadis also won the 2010 World Judo Champion title in Tokyo in the 90 kg category. He won the 2011 European Judo Championship in Istanbul and won the world judo title for the second time in the same year. And in 2014 for the third and last time he took the gold of the world championship held in Russia.
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