 Ioannis Melissanidis in 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Ioannis Melissanidis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1977-03-27)27 March 1977 (age 48) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gymnastics career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Men's artistic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented |  Greece | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Spartacus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eponymous skills | Melissanidis vault | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ioannis Melissanidis (Greek:Ιωάννης Μελισσανίδης; born 27 March 1977) is a retired Greek artistic gymnast and the 1996 Olympic champion on thefloor exercise. He was also the first Greek gymnast ever to medal at theWorld Championships. He was named one of the 1996Greek Male Athletes of the Year.
Melissanidis was born inMunich,Germany to parents Evangelos and Ekaterini, Greek nationals who were working in Germany. He hails from the village ofVyronia,Serres,[1] and has two older siblings, Spiros and Maria. When Melissanidis was 2 years old, his family returned toThessaloniki, which he considers his hometown.[2][3]
Melissanidis began training gymnastics andclassical ballet at the age of 9 and a half. His parents were not originally supportive of the idea, and, according to Melissanidis, only relented and took him to the Spartakos Thessaloniki gymnastics club after he refused to eat for two days.[2]
At his first Junior European Championships in 1991 Melissanidis placed a modest 18th in the all-around,[4] but earned a bronze medal on the floor exercise, placing ahead of future World ChampionsIvan Ivankov andYordan Yovchev.[5] Two years later, in 1993, he won the floor title at Junior Europeans and placed third on the vault.[6]
In 1994, defended his floor exercise title at the 1994 Junior European Championships inPrague,[7] marking his third time medaling as a junior on this apparatus. 1994 was also his first year competing as a senior, and at age 17, he tied with Great Britain's Neil Thomas for the silver medal on floor at the1994 World Championships. With this medal, Melissanidis became the first Greek gymnast, male or female, to medal at the World Championships.
Although Melissanidis competed at the 1995 and 1996 World Championships, he did not qualify to an apparatus final.[8] However, at the1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Melissanidis won the floor exercise gold medal with a score of 9.850. The win marked the first Olympics gymnastics medal for Greece since the 1906 Intercalated Games (and in the official Games since 1896, after 100 years).
Melissanidis continued competing after 1996, winning the vault title at the 1998 European Championships inSaint Petersburg. He represented Greece at the2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, but, struggling with injury, competed only on vault and high bar.[9][10]
The hallmark of Melissanidis' floor exercises was two specific kinds of combinations: (a) backward saltos out of a whipback and (b) front tuck saltos (with or without a full twist) rebounding forward out of the landing of a backward salto. He often did both types of combinations in the same series, e.g., whip + double layout + rebound front tuck.
Melissanidis has one vault named after him in theCode of Points; theYurchenko double back in tuck position.[10] In the currentCode of Points, his vault carries a D-score (difficulty rating) of 5.2.[11] For some time, the piked version was also credited to him, but it is now credited to Yang Wei, who debuted it in 2002.
In 1996, Melissanidis publiclycame out as agay man.[12][13]
In recent years, Melissanidis has been active in various social and athletic causes. He is a supporter ofGreenpeace,[2] and, in 2003, publicly supported the Melina Mercouri Foundation's campaign to return theParthenon sculptures in theBritish Museum to Greece.[14] A gymnastics hall in his hometown of Thessaloníki has been named in his honor.[15] He was also one of the torchbearers in the2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony inAthens.[16]
As of 2008, he was a student at theAmerican Academy of Dramatic Arts inLos Angeles. He was also an invited guest of the 2008 Olympic competition in China and toured Chinese universities as an International Olympic representative.[citation needed]
In 2017, Melissanidis was selected byANT1 to be a judge on the showSo You Think You Can Dance.[citation needed]
