“This morning he couldn’t breathe and he died in my arms. No one should experience this. We were together for 42 years, approaching 43. I feel dead.” These are the first statements by Voula Patoulidou to parapolitika.gr and Sasa Stamati following the tragic news. About the great battle her husband fought against cancer, she says: “He had cancer which we were managing very well. Everything had shrunk by 50%. On Monday we were going on vacation to Komitsa, in the third peninsula of Halkidiki.”
Who was Dimitris Zarzavatsidis
Born on January 15, 1956, in the Kato Toumba area of Thessaloniki. He was a distinguished weightlifting athlete who competed in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where he placed 8th in the heavyweight category with a total performance of 347.5 kilos.
He worked as a weightlifting instructor at the Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from the mid-1980s until recently, also supervising student dissertations.
From 1988 to 1992 and from 1995 to 2000, he served as a coach for national youth teams, contributing to numerous medal wins in international competitions.
He was married to Voula Patoulidou and they had one son, George.
