Dimitris Papanikolaou

He was born on 7/2/77 in Athens. He started his professional athletic career at the age of 15, where he also received his first paycheck. He would take two buses and a train daily to get to his training sessions from his family home in Ilio, to Patissia and Sporting. At 16, he won the European children’s championship with the National Team. At 18, he won the World Junior Championship and that same summer transferred to Olympiacos. He spent a total of 3 years at Sporting, 7 years at Olympiacos, 1 year at Makedonikos, 4 years at Panathinaikos, 2 years at AEK, 1 year at Panionios, and 1 year at Peristeri.

Apart from being a European children’s champion and world junior champion, he is a 2-time Olympian with the national men’s team, 7-time Greek champion, 6-time Greek Cup winner, 2-time European club champion with Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, and the only Greek basketball player to achieve a triple crown with Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, meaning winning the championship, cup, and European title in the same season. After retiring, he was awarded by the Panhellenic Association of Sports Press for his ethics throughout his career.

In the last 2 years, he has been dedicated to raising awareness about autism, mainly due to his daughter, but also speaking about self-improvement, athleticism, and teamwork, and how he utilized these experiences from sports to turn what society perceived as a disadvantage into an advantage and help thousands of people facing similar challenges.