NIKOS KAKLAMANAKIS
THE GREEK GOD

Nikolaos “Nikos” Kaklamanakis, born August 19, 1968 in Athens is the Greek Gold-medal winner who lit the Olympic torch in the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

 

One of the most popular athletes in Greece, Nikolaos Kaklamanakis is a three-time Mistral class windsurfing world champion and a gold medalist at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Sailing. He won silver in the event at the 2003 World Championships in Cádiz, Spain, behind Przemek Miarczynski of Poland. In the 2000 Summer Olympics he took the 6th place, while in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Kaklamanakis took the silver medal behind Gal Fridman of Israel. Four years later, in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games he finished 8th in the RS:X Men Sailing Race.

An ambassador of the movements “Safe Water Sports” and “Run for the Oceans” in Greece, Nikos is a model athlete, a paradigm of self-discipline and perseverance. “One should chose the small daily victories that will slowly lead him to the grand success. Through sport, you learn to be modest and humble in every effort, but at the time of the competition to have self-confidence to believe you can win”.

 

Believing that one can survive nature and the sea only if one can assess the wind, the wave and the clouds and be proactive rather than responsive, he learnt since he was a small boy that he must not fear the sea but respect it. “Respecting nature, you also respect humans and vice-versa. These two are closely interconnected”.

 

Wishing to return what he has taken from the sea, what he calls the golden rule of “energy exchange”, he supports environmental and other causes as a token of love and respect for the world that nurtures him.