Although Americans might have some difficulty pronouncing his name, to gymnastics fans around the world Ioannis Melissanidis is a renowned Olympic gold medal gymnastics champion. He also is a national hero of his native Greece.
Melissanides, who lived in West Hollywood briefly a number of years ago, is back in the area to reprise a role he played successfully in London and Berlin. His play is based on the Greek tragic myth of Sisyphus and inspired by Samuel Beckett and Shakespeare. It will be staged on July 28-29 at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills. Melissanides got rave reviews from a performance in the same role in London. He recently performed in sold out theaters in Bangkok and Berlin with two different contemporary plays.
Sports fans know Melissanides best for his winning a gold medal in gymnastics at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. With that win, Melissanides, at 19, became the youngest Olympic champion in the history of men’s gymnastics and the first one in 100 years for Greece. His autographed t-shirt is exhibited at the International Olympic museum in Lausanne between that of Carl Lewis and Katerina Witt’s shoes. The International Gymnastic Federation named two vaulting exercises, both of which he was the first in the world to perform, after him. He served as one of the last five “chosen” torchbearers of the 2004 Athens Olympics Opening Ceremony, and he lighted the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics flame at the Temple of Acropolis.
Melissanides also is known for his bravery in coming out as a gay man in 1996, shortly after Greg Louganis revealed that he was gay in an interview in 1995 with Oprah Winfrey. “The hostility and persecution toward him for coming out was tremendous,” recalled fellow gay Olympian Kris Burley of Melissanides in an interview with Toronto’s Daily Xtra. “I witnessed it at the World Championships and other competitions, and it was awful, how he was made fun of,” Burley said. “Particularly the Russian and Eastern Bloc countries were very hostile toward anybody who was not considered hyper-masculine. I remember that he was ostracized and completely made fun of, and I would never in my condition risk the same thing.”
Now retired from athletics, Melissanides continues to dance, act and work for humanitarian causes. He has modeled for Armani and Versace and in film was featured with Helen Mirren and Milla Jovovich in Gore Vidal’s movie “Caligula” at the Venice Biennale. Melissanides won the Fair Play award from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, for his decision to dedicate his gold European medal to his Turkish co-athlete who died in a car accident two months prior to the European Championship and give the medal to his parents.
Melissinides also is a special ambassador representing the 2015 World Special Olympics, which opens Saturday in Los Angeles and runs through Aug. 2. Melissinides will dedicate and give the proceeds from his July 28 performance of “Sisyphus” to Special Olympian athletes of the United States and Greece to provide a bridge – both culturally and athletically — between the two countries
Melissinides said he chose the Greek play “Sisyphus” to showcase his acting talents because “it’s a powerful metaphor for the eternal effort that every human being faces when confronting their destiny — the Shakespearean dilemma either to be part of the game and accept its rules, or not to be part of it, and try to change one’s destiny at any cost. In this spirit, the play is dedicated to the heroic effort of the Special Olympians.”
The “Sisyphus performances,” open to those 13 and over, are at 7 p.m. at Theatre 40, 241 S. Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills next Tuesday and Wednesay. Tickets, $25, are available online.
