By Despina Karpathiou.
When Mark Nicolaidis from Brisbane, Queensland began playing indoor volleyball at school at 14, he never dreamed that 10 years later he’d be representing Australia at the 2024 Paris Olympics. They say the best things in life happen unexpectedly, and that’s exactly what happened to this Greek Australian.
Making his Olympic debut in just a few days, Mark and his beach volleyball partner Izac Carracher’s selection mean Australia will field two men’s beach volleyball teams in the Olympics for the first time since 2004 in Athens.
Apart from that, the two are the youngest male beach volleyball team from Australia to compete in an Olympics, only surpassed by Julien Prosser and Leo Zahner in Atlanta in 1996.
A third-generation Greek Australian, his grandparents came from Kastoria and made many sacrifices for their family, like most immigrants.
Born in Auchenflower in Queensland, Mark contributes his sporting successes to “having the right people around you.”
Between 2016 and 2019, Mark played for the undefeated Queensland Pirates, who took home four Australian Volleyball League championships. Fast forward to 2017, he had also started dabbling in beach volleyball, and then he and fellow Pirate James Takken won bronze in the Bahamas’ Nassau at the Commonwealth Youth Games. However, his career really took off in 2022, when he teamed with Carracher. The two won gold in their first international tournament as a pair.
Sand aside, Mark also graduated from Queensland University of Technology in 2021 with a Bachelor of Property Economics and aspires to build a career in the real estate industry in the future.
The Greek Herald sat down with Mark to talk about his Olympic Aspirations and journey to Paris.
Congratulations! How does it feel to make the 2024 Olympics team?
It really is a dream come true! Nothing compares to representing your country at the biggest sporting event in the world. It’s an opportunity that only comes around every four years and I feel very fortunate to be part of it.
What’s been your process up to this point?
In 2021, I was a training partner for the Women’s Beach Volleyball team in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics while I finished my university degree. I joined the National Beach Volleyball Program in Adelaide at the start of 2022. Since then, Izac and I have chased summer around the world taking every opportunity we could to compete on the Beach Pro Tour. Recently we switched our focus to the Asian Continental Cup which we won alongside another Aussie team and that’s how we qualified our spot for the Paris Olympic Games.
Who would you say is your biggest motivator or who do you look up to?
There’s not really an individual person that I look up to, but I’m motivated by the success of others every day. This helps me to strive to reach for more and become the best I can.
Who’s your biggest supporter/s?
My biggest supporters are my family (mum Karen, brothers Zach and Alex, and my partner Madi Cox). I genuinely wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for them. My mum has always provided unmatched support and created the opportunity for me to do everything I have wanted to do with no judgement. I don’t think I would be as competitive as I am if it wasn’t for growing up with my brothers and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Madi was the main reason I pushed to play beach volleyball full time before starting a corporate job and that changed my career path entirely.
Why beach volleyball?
I’ve always loved all sports and I played basketball for five years before I even started playing volleyball. As soon as I played my first match I fell in love with it. I really enjoyed how much fun it was and that you had to be a team player to be successful. I then started beach volleyball in the summer and only having two people on the court, you really had to be a jack of all trades and winning and losing relied a lot on your individual performance.
What’s your advice for the next generation of athletes and those hoping to go where you’ve gone?
The biggest and best piece of advice I could give is that you really have to take risks and go after any opportunity you can and that means sometimes creating your own journey. The biggest learning I’ve had is that you can always go and work a corporate job anytime in life but you can’t always play sport.
What would you like to achieve in these Olympic Games?
Whilst getting into the Olympics is an achievement, I wouldn’t be satisfied by just participating. I would love to go as deep in the draw as possible and ultimately ending up with a medal around my neck is the target.
Where to watch Mark? Saturday 27th of July is his first game. Channel Nine will broadcast the Games free to air, with coverage spread across its main channel and 9Gem. 9Now will stream every moment of every event across more than 40 dedicated channels.
