Mark's Story
Brisbane’s Mark Nicolaidis started played indoor volleyball at school as a 14-year-old and within two years he was a Pirate.
Mark was a member of the dominant Queensland Pirates squad, which won four Australian Volleyball League titles between 2016 and 2019.
However, by 2017 he had also begun trying his hand at beach volleyball, teaming up with fellow Pirate James Takken to win bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Nassau in the Bahamas.
The following year the pair qualified for the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they finished ninth.
However, Mark’s career went to a new level in 2022, when he teamed up with Sydneysider Izac Carracher. The pair burst onto the scene at the Gold Coast Beach Pro Tour Futures event, winning gold in their first international tournament as a pair with a 21-11, 21-16 victory over Canadians Jake MacNeil and Alex Russell in the final.
The win opened the door for Mark and Izac to head overseas to compete in Beach Pro Tour events, highlighted by a remarkable ninth place at the 2022 World Championships in Rome.
Mark, who graduated in 2021 with a bachelor of property economics from Queensland University of Technology and hopes to build a career in the real estate industry, continues to compete internationally with a sharp focus on the Paris Olympics.
He believes the strong bond between him and Izac is their secret weapon on and off the sand.
“The greatest strength of our team is in the world ‘team’ itself,” Mark said. “We pride ourselves on being a tightly knit partnership who take risks and back each other 100 per cent no matter what.
“We are great mates both on and off the court and this really keeps us together in the toughest times.”
At the Paris 2024 Olympics Mark and Izac faced teams from Qatar and Italy as well as a world number one ranked pair from Sweden. Both men were strong in their matches but were unable to record a win to advance from the group stage.
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