Olympian laid to rest in Thessaloniki

The funeral of Alexandros Nikolaidis, a tae kwon do athlete who won two silver medals in the heavyweight division in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, was held on Saturday in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.

The funeral was attended by his teammates and a large number of citizens at the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Neapolis. The funeral was paid for by the municipality.

He died on Friday, three days short of his 43rd birthday. He was suffering from NUT, a rare and very aggressive form of cancer.

In a Facebook post that went up after his death, he said he had been ill over the past two years.