[Makedonas 1,907]

On 11/13/2021 at 4:19 PM, Makedonas said:

Wow, what a nice surprise! It's a pity Vougiouka retired after Rio 2016, she was only 30. Had she continued until Tokyo, we could've maybe qualified in the team sabre and possibly had a chance at a medal with Vougiouka, Gkountoura and Georgiadou.

 

Unfortunately we don't have a good third fencer in this event, especially since only one can qualify via ranking. In Tokyo it was Gkountoura, which meant that Georgiadou didn't even have the opportunity to compete in the European qualifying tournament 

Georgiadou and Gkountoura gave a long interview after this and they both said the Olympic qualification system is unfair how only one athlete per country can make it if they don't have a team, and that their goal is to qualify for Paris as a team but it will be very hard to find 1-2 more athletes.

 

However they kept repeating this so I wonder if they are in talks with Vougiouka to make a comeback. She will be 38 in Paris, but Velikaya and Zagunis are both 36 and still in the top 10 at the moment. That would be really special if they could make it happen although Vougiouka has been retired for 5 years now so who knows what physical condition she will be in even in the unlikely event that she does come back.

 

The girls also said that they were cheering for each other every round, and when they found out they were facing each other in the final they were celebrating together and hugging together while everyone else was looking at them strangely. They said they didn't care who won in the final (which is probably a lie, lol) and that afterwards they went out to dinner to celebrate together. They said fencers from big powers like Russia, USA, Italy, France won't understand how special it was for them to both make the final and that they hope it gives them more sponsors because they went to Orleans with their own money. They said it's hard to make it without support and that there were other talented fencers in Greece who stopped at 18 to go to university and try to have a normal/stable life and make a career.

[Makedonas 1,907]

109th place for Kontochristopoulou. Kind of crazy to think she was only 18 when she qualified for the Rio Olympics and she seemed so promising for the future but it ended up being just a crazy fluke.

[Makedonas 1,907]

Wow, what a nice surprise! It's a pity Vougiouka retired after Rio 2016, she was only 30. Had she continued until Tokyo, we could've maybe qualified in the team sabre and possibly had a chance at a medal with Vougiouka, Gkountoura and Georgiadou.

 

Unfortunately we don't have a good third fencer in this event, especially since only one can qualify via ranking. In Tokyo it was Gkountoura, which meant that Georgiadou didn't even have the opportunity to compete in the European qualifying tournament 

 

We had Kontochristopoulou qualify for Rio but that was in the foil event (she was 18 then so it was a big deal but now it seems like a big fluke), and now we also have Chaldaiou in the foil event who won bronze at the European Junior Championships last year.

 

On the men's side there is absolutely no one. We had a guy Giakoumatos who was in the 2014 Youth Olympics and won a medal with the mixed team, and Kontochristopoulou's brother also competes at some big competitions but without much success.

 

So yeah, that's basically the story of Greek fencing after 2004 (before 2004 we were completely non-existent so our current situation is actually a massive improvement). We haven't won an Olympic medal since 1896 but we had chances in London (Vougiouka had a big lead in her quarterfinal match and then got injured and lost), Rio and Tokyo. Perhaps we will finally break the curse in Paris?  Gkountoura won bronze at the 2019 World Championships which was the first Greek fencer to ever win a medal at the World Championships so that's another step in the right direction.

[Makedonas 1,907]

Theodora out in the first round 

[Makedonas 1,907]

Very disappointing because she was like fourth or so of the top ranked Europeans who didn't qualify yet. Thank you both for the information though.

[Makedonas 1,907]

9 hours ago, Vektor said:

I thought that it would be nice to look up which nations are eligible for the zonal qualifiers and have at least one athlete in the individual Top100 world ranking.

 

Men's sabre

 

Europe:        

 

Asia & Oceania:           

 

America:       

 

Africa:   

 

 

Women's sabre

 

Europe:                

 

Asia & Oceania:       

 

America:            

 

Africa:   

 

I will do the rest for the others when they will have their final ranking. 

Wait, so we can't send Despina Georgiadou in the women's sabre because we already have one athlete qualified in that event? She is ranked around 30 or so I think. Or you just posted the countries that don't have any quotas yet?

[Makedonas 1,907]

So happy our girl Theodora Gkountoura has officially qualified now! In 2019 she became the first Greek fencer to win a medal at the World Championships. Now it's time for her to become the first Greek fencer to win an Olympic medal since 1896!

[Makedonas 1,907]

57 minutes ago, mrv86 said:

According to the president of the Mexican Fencing Federation, FIE is now proposing to cancel every continental qualification tournament and replace them with 3 global events, one for each weapon: Sabre in Budapest, Epée in Kazan & Foil in Doha.

 

Source (in Spanish)

Would this change the continental quotas? Or would the best fencers from each continent qualify based on how they do there?