Born in Athens in 1953, Stellios Prosalikas became Greece’s national team coach in January, 2001 with the Olympics three years later his ultimate goal. One usually sees a gradual improvement in results and form when building up towards such a big event such as the Games but Prosalikas’s squad achieved several good results early on in the Olympic cycle.

Under his command, the Greeks returned to the World League in 2001 for the first time since 1996 and finished
ninth. They repeated this effort in 2002 before going a couple of places better in the 2003 edition, finishing seventh. With the Olympics just around the corner, the 2004 edition of the World League was a case of experimenting and working on combinations for Prosalikas. Greece didn’t progress past the preliminary phase, finishing behind defending champions Brazil in pool play.

But Prosalikas’ best performance was in the 2002 World Championship in Argentina, where his side caught some of their opponents on the hop and surprisingly finished in seventh place.

A former player, Prosalikas was selected 44 times for the national team. In the course of the 1990s he coached several Greek clubs, including Panathinaikos, Nafpigia, Ionikos and AEK.