German tennis player Nicolas Kiefer started his Olympic career at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, losing his first-round match to Frenchman Arnaud Di Pasqualke. He then won the silver medal at the 2004 Athina Olympics in the men’s doubles with Rainer Schüttler, losing in five sets to the Chilean pair of Fernando Gónzalez and Nicolas Massú. Kiefer and Schüttler were awarded the Silver Bay Leaf, Germany’s highest sports award. In the singles tournament Kiefer reached the third round, same as in 2008 at Beijing. At Beijing he also lost his first-round match in the doubles with Schüttler.
Kiefer won six ATP tournaments in total and reached his highest world ranking with #4 in 2001. His mother was French, and his father German. In 2006, he reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open as his best result at a Grand Slam tournament, although he also made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 1997 and the US Open in 2000. Kiefer was a fan and member of the German football (soccer) club Hannover 96 and of the ice hockey club Hannover Scorpions.
Germany