Judo champion Theodoros Tselidis won a bronze medal for Greece on Wednesday on the fifth day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. This was the first medal for Greece in this year’s Olympics.
Tselidis competed earlier in the Men’s 90 kg Semifinal Round against Ngayap Hambou Mg from France. However, he lost 1-0. The Greek champion then competed for the bronze against Tristani Mosakhlishvili, who competed for Spain.
Tselidis performed brilliantly and managed to secure Greece’s first Olympic medal with a score of 1-0 against the champion from Spain.
The match lasted four minutes, and the Greek athlete got one penalty, as did Mosakhlishvili. The referee of the match was France’s Matthieu Bataille.
Who is Tselidis who won Greece’s first Paris Olympics medal?
Tselidis is a 28-year-old champion of judo. He is a Greek with family roots in Ossetia. Although his name in Greek is Theodoros Tselidis, he is also known in Russian as Fyodor Nikolayevich Tselidi.
Tselidis has won many medals during his impressive career, including a gold during the 2024 IJF Grand Slam that took place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He also won a bronze in Tbilisi this year during the same IJF Grand Slam series and another bronze in Astana last year.
Tselidis also has two Mediterranean Games medals, a bronze one in 2018 and a silver one in 2022. He has been competing in the 90 kg men’s category for years now.
More Greek successes on Day 5 of the Paris Olympics
The fifth day of the Paris Olympics was a good day for Greece, as a number of athletes performed well and were successful in various events, as well.
In today’s rowing events of the Paris Olympics, Christina Bourmpou and Evangelia Anastasiadou competed in the Women’s Pair Semifinals. After a great performance and finishing third in their semi-finals with a time of 7:18.28, the duo advanced to the finals.
On their behalf, Petros Gaidatzis and Antonis Papakonstantinou also faced tough competition in the Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls Semifinals. The two Greek athletes finished second behind Italy with a time of 6:23.36 and secured a spot in the finals along with Norway.
Similarly, Milena Kontou and Zoe Fitsiou participated in the Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls Semifinals and secured a position in the finals, which will take place on Friday. The Greek duo advanced after securing second place in their semi-finals behind Romania but above Ireland. The Greek female athletes finished in 6:57.90.
In tennis, Greek champion Stefanos Tsitsipas won 2-0 sets (7-5, 6-1) in a game against Argentina’s Sebastian Baez during the third round of the men’s singles in Paris.
Now, Tsitsipas will have to compete against world tennis phenomenon Novak Djokovic to secure a place in the semi-finals.
