Paolo Nicolai (born 6 August 1988) is an Italian

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

player.

Biography

Nicolai was born in

Ortona Ortona ( Abruzzese: '; ) is a coastal town and municipality of the Province of Chieti in the Italian region of Abruzzo, with some 23,000 inhabitants. In 1943 Ortona was the site of the bloody Battle of Ortona, known as "Western Stalingrad". ...

province of Chieti The province of Chieti (; Neapolitan language, Abruzzese: ') is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Its provincial capital is the city Chieti, which has a population of 50,770 inhabitants. The province has a total popul ...

. In 2007 and 2008, he won the FIVB Youth Beach Volleyball World Championships (with Francesco Giontella). From 2009 he played with different partners (Matteo Varnier and Matteo Martino), becoming an Italian champion once, until in 2011 the Italian federation had him partnered with

Daniele Lupo Daniele Lupo (born 6 May 1991) is an Italian beach volleyball player. He competed for Italy at the 2016 Summer Olympics and at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Along with partner, Paolo Nicolai, he won the silver medal in men's beach volleyball in 20 ...

. Lupo and Nicolai qualified for the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, where they were eliminated by the Dutch team Nummerdor- Schuil in the quarter-finals. Nicolai was elected FIVB Most Improved Player 2012. Lupo and Nicolai won the Beach Volleyball European World Championships twice, once in 2014 and again in 2016. A series of podiums in the World Tour also granted them the qualification for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, where they reached the final, winning the silver medal. They reached the final, despite having to qualify as "lucky losers" from the pool stage.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolai, Paolo 1988 births Living people Italian beach volleyball players Beach volleyball blockers Beach volleyball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players for Italy Beach volleyball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Italy Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in beach volleyball People from Ortona Beach volleyball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from the Province of Chieti 21st-century Italian sportsmen Beach volleyball players at the 2024 Summer Olympics