Tokyo 2020 Country Profiles

[Makedonas 2,155]

I thought it would be a cool idea for people to post some interesting facts/figures about their country’s delegations. I’ll start with Greece 

 

By the numbers:

29th Summer Olympic appearance (tied for most of all-time)

83 = athletes in Tokyo (smallest team since Barcelona 1992. We had 93 in Rio 2016)

46 = male athletes in Tokyo (56 in Rio 2016)

37 = female athletes in Tokyo (same amount as Rio 2016)

17 = sports in Tokyo (15 in 2016, 19 in 2012, 22 in 2008)

40 = Olympic debutants in Tokyo

43 = former Olympians in Tokyo

4 = mothers in Tokyo (Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou-pole vault, Paraskevi Papachristou-triple jump, Evangelia Psarra-archery, Emilia Tsoulfa-sailing)

18 = athletes born in 2000 or later

32 = age of oldest Olympic debutant (Polychronis Tzortzakis-cycling)

8 = former Youth Olympics participants

6 = most Olympic appearances (Evangelia Psarra-archery)

4 = former Olympic gold medalists (Anna Korakaki-shooting, Eleftherios Petrounias-gymnastics, Ekaterini Stefanidi-athletics, Emilia Tsoulfa-sailing)

6 = former Olympic medalists (same as above +Pavlos Kagialis-sailing, Panagiotis Mantis-sailing)

 

Athletes with the most Olympic appearances (including Tokyo) :

6: Evangelia Psarra (archery - 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020)

5: Panagiotis Gionis (table tennis - 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020)

4: Konstantinos Douvalidis (athletics - 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020), Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou (athletics - 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020), Emilia Tsoulfa (sailing - 1996, 2000, 2004, 2020), Christos Volikakis (cycling - 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020)

 

Former Olympians who were not in Rio:

Periklis Ilias (cycling - 2012, 2020)

Nikolaos Mavrommatis (shooting - 2012, 2020)

Dimitrios Tsiamis (athletics - 2008, 2020)

Emilia Tsoulfa (sailing - 1996, 2000, 2004, 2020)

 

Three youngest Olympians:

1. Krystalenia Gialama (artistic swimming) - 16 years, 11 months

2. Eleni Fragkaki (artistic swimming) - 17 years, 5 months

3. Andriana Misikevych (artistic swimming) - 18 years, 4 months

 

Three oldest Olympians:

1. Emilia Tsoulfa (sailing) - 48 years, 2 months

2. Evangelia Psarra (archery) - 47 years, 1 month

3. Panagiotis Gionis (table tennis) - 41 years, 6 months

 

Siblings:

1. Anneta Kyridou (rowing) and Maria Kyridou (rowing)

2. Stamatia Scarvelis (athletics) and Nicholas Scarvelis (athletics, 2016)

3. Christos Volikakis (cycling) and Zafeiris Volikakis (cycling, 2012)

*Those in italics represented Greece but are not in Tokyo.

 

Parents/Children:

1. Maria Sakkari (tennis) and Angeliki Kanellopoulou (tennis, 1984)

2. Kristian Gkolomeev (swimming) and  Tsvetan Gkolomeev (swimming, 1980 and 1988)

*Those in italics represented Greece but are not in Tokyo.

 

Top cities with the most 2020 Olympians:

1. Athens - too many to count

2. Chania, Crete - 7

3. Thessaloniki, Macedonia - 6

4. Karditsa, Thessaly - 4

5. Heraklion, Crete - 3

*First time since 1996 that no athletes from Corfu (Kerkyra) island are going to the Olympics, and first time since 2000 that no athletes from Kastoria, Macedonia and Veria, Macedonia are going to the Olympics.

 

Athletes born in other countries:

 Kristian Gkolomeev (swimming) - His family moved to Greece when he was an infant and he lived in Greece his entire life

 Alexios Ntanatsidis (judo) - Both of his parents are Greeks and he lived in Greece from a very young age

 Stamatia Scarvelis (athletics) - Both of her parents are Greeks

 

Athletes from Greece but representing other countries:

 Kristina Alvertsian (athletics)

 Anna-Maria Alexandri (artistic swimming), Eirini Alexandri (artistic swimming)

 Sideris Tasiadis (canoeing) [okay he is different from the others because he lived most of his life in Germany but he did live in Greece for 10 years during his childhood so we’ll count him]

 Afrodite Zegers [nee Kyranakou] (sailing)

 Stephania Haralabidis (water polo)

*All used to compete for Greece except for Tasiadis

 

Athletes that train in Greece but represent other countries:

 Nikol Merizaj (swimming)

 Kristina Alvertsian (athletics)

 Kalia Antoniou (swimming), Nikolaos Antoniou (swimming)

 Marija Vukovic (athletics)

*I didn’t include people who play for Greek clubs in team sports because in water polo for example there would be so many.

 

Biggest teams by sport:

Athletics: 20 in 15 events

Water Polo: 13 in 1 event

Swimming: 12 in 13 events

Artistic Swimming: 9 in 2 events

Sailing: 8 in 6 events

 

Biggest changes in team size compared to Rio:

(-)8: Gymnastics

(+)7: Artistic Swimming

(-)6: Rowing

(-)5: Athletics

 

Events where more than one athlete/team per country is allowed to participate, and the country has reached the maximum quotas:

Athletics: women’s 20 km walk (3), women’s pole vault (3)

Swimming: men's 200 m freestyle (2), men's 400 m freestyle (2), men’s 800 m freestyle (2), men’s 200 m individual medley (2)

 

First time qualifying in…

Rowing women’s pair EVER

Swimming mixed relay EVER (new event)

Swimming men’s 800 m freestyle EVER (new event)

Tennis mixed doubles EVER

Artistic swimming team since 2004

Men’s tennis since 2004

Sailing women’s 470 since 2004

Athletics women’s 100 m since 2000

Rowing women’s single sculls since 1996

 

First time not qualifying in…

Heptathlon since 1996

Shot put since 1996

Marathon since 1992

High jump since 1988

Rhythmic gymnastics since 1984

 

Other interesting facts:

-In 2004 (8 and 8), 2008 (2 and 2), 2012 (1 and 1) and 2016 (3 and 3), each time Greece had the same amount of men’s medals as women’s medals. It will be interesting to see if that trend will continue this time, or if one gender will do better than the other in Tokyo.

 

-Our long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou was just 18 in Rio, and he was the youngest of the 103 members of the Greek Olympic team in 2016. Now he is not the youngest, but he is the only member of the Greek Olympic team that actually speaks Japanese. He claims to understand everything but says his speaking isn't perfect although he can converse in Japanese. He learned the language because he is a big fan of Japanese anime. I bet not too many countries can say they have athletes going to Tokyo who can actually speak Japanese, especially someone who is one of their biggest hopes to win gold as Tentoglou is for us.

 

-This is our 11th consecutive Olympic participation in men's water polo. We've never had more than two consecutive participations in any other team sport.

 

-I haven't seen any official lists yet, but it is likely that Greece will have the youngest teams of all countries in the sports of artistic swimming and rowing (based on average age of all athletes per NOC in these two sports).

 

 

Feel free to add any other interesting facts about your countries’ teams!

 

[hckošice 14,829]

 

41 Athletes, smallest delegation ever.

 

27 male & 14 female.  14 sports competing (in 6 of them with one athlete).

 

Debuting in Golf. Returning in combat sports Wrestling after Beijing 2008 and Boxing returning after 1996 when Di Caprio´s Titanic was still not a thing.

First time ever not qualified in Weightlifting and W tennis. Also the participation nice streak in Triathlon and MTB cycling is over as well.

 

The youngest athlete: Denisa Baránková (Archery) 19 years a couple of months younger than Emma Zapletalová (400m Hurdles)

The oldest athlete: Rory Sabbatini (Golf) 45 years old, some weeks older than Erik Varga (Shooting)

 

Weight: the heaviest Marcel Lomnický (Hammer Throw) 110kg the lightest Mária Czaková (Race Walk) 57kg

The tallest Matej Beňuš (C1 Canoe slalom) 196cm, the smallest Denisa Baránková (Archery) 162cm

 

Erik Vlček (K4-500) is going to compete at his 6th Olympics games (New all time Slovak record) Any other slovak athlete has competed at more han 5 Olympics (Summer or winter, SVK or Czechoslovakia or that Austria-Hungary thing before)

23 Athletes will experience their Olympic debut (out of 41 is not bad at all, I mean we have small team but very young, thats nice, Tommy Bach will be happy, we are youth & urban as heck)

 

The country won 28 medals (as Slovakia since 1996)

9 of them Gold. 8 of them in canoe Slalom, the only gold medal the country won in any other sport than canoe slalom as Slovakia was Matej Tóth in Rio 2016 Race Walk 50km.

 

The most succesful olympians, Hochschorner Twins 3 times olympic champions in a row 2000-2008 and bronze in London 2012 in C2

Michal Martikán won the most medals 5 in all 5 consecutive games he attended (2x gold, 2x silver and 1 bronze) from 1996-2012 in C1

we speak about canoe slalom ofc. Also this is the only sport we won 2 medals in 1 single day at the olympics twice in 2004 & 2008 and once it was even 2 gold medals in some 30 minutes (C2 M & K1 W in beijing)

 

Competed as the eastern and smallest part of (sadly now only former) Czechoslovakia from 1920 to 1992 winning several medals even golds for the country.

Competed as the unknown piece of land of the (Thankfully former) Austria-hungary from 1896 to 1912 winning a couple of medals even golds for that thing.

 

Most popular sport of the country: Ice Hockey, interest of the games especially for winter olympics.

Goals in Tokyo: attacking PBs and NRs and try to show hopefully at least once our medal ceremony uniforms

[intoronto 5,639]

Moving this over from the team size thread with a small update in team size.

 

Canada 

 

Total number of athletes: 370 (226 will be at their first Olympics)

Women: 225, Men: 145
Youngest: Summer McIntosh, 14 (August 18, 2006), Swimming; Oldest – Mario Deslauriers, 56 (February 2, 1965), Equestrian 

Team sports – 8; the most in a non-hosted or non-boycotted Games

 

Sets of siblings:

1. Gabriela DeBues-Stafford (Athletics) and Lucia Stafford (Athletics) 
2. Halle Pratt (Artistic Swimming) and Cole Pratt (Swimming)
3. Claire Wright (Water Polo) and Emma Wright (Water Polo)

Children of Olympians:

1. Axelle Crevier, Water Polo (Mother Marie-Claude Deslières, Water Polo) 
2. Tali Darsigny, Weightlifting (Father Yvan, Weightlifting) 
3. Nicholas Hoag, Volleyball (Father Glenn, Volleyball)
4. Lynda Kiejko, Shooting (Father Bill Hare, Shooting)
5. Kai Langerfeld, Rowing (Father York, Rowing)
6. Summer McIntosh, Swimming (Mother Jill Horstead, Swimming)
7. Mariah Millen, Sailing (Father John, Sailing)
8. Jordan Steen, Wrestling (Father Dave, Athletics and Mother Andrea Page, Athletics) 
9. Ali ten Hove, Sailing (Father Martin, Sailing) 
10. Avalon Wasteneys, Rowing (Mother Heather Clarke, Rowing)  
11. Jillian Weir, Athletics (Father Robert,  Athletics)  

Provincial and territorial breakdown (by hometown):

• Ontario: 171
• Quebec: 58
• British Columbia: 95
• Nova Scotia: 8
• Alberta: 28
• Manitoba: 5
• Saskatchewan: 3
• Athletes with hometowns outside Canada: 2
• New Brunswick: 1
• Newfoundland and Labrador: 0
• Northwest Territories: 0
• Nunavut: 0
• Prince Edward Island: 0
• Yukon: 0

 

Athletes who previously attended a Games:

• Olympic Games (Summer): 144
• Youth Olympic Games (Summer): 16
• Olympic Winter Games: 2

 

By Olympic Games (Summer):

• Los Angeles 1984: 1
• Seoul 1988: 1
• Athens 2004: 4
• Beijing 2008: 17
• London 2012: 33
• Rio 2016: 134

 

By Youth Olympic Games (Summer):

• Singapore 2010: 3 
• Nanjing 2014: 8
• Buenos Aires 2018: 5

 

By Olympic Winter Games:

• Vancouver 2010: 1
• Sochi 2014: 2
• PyeongChang 2018: 1

[Vojthas 949]

Poland

 

By the numbers:

22nd Summer Olympic appearance

210 = athletes in Tokyo

110 = male athletes in Tokyo

100 = female athletes in Tokyo

24 = sports in Tokyo (15 in 2016, 19 in 2012, 22 in 2008)

119 = Olympic debutants in Tokyo

91 = former Olympians in Tokyo

12 = athletes born in 2000 or later

52 = age of oldest Olympic debutant (Sławomir Napłoszek - archery, turns 53 on 29th July)

17 = former Youth Olympics participants

• Singapore 2010 - 2 (Bartłomiej Wawak - MTB, Anna Maliszewska - modern pentathlon)
• Nanjing 2014 - 10 (Sylwia Zyzańska - archery, Mateusz Borkowski - athletics, Konrad Bukowiecki - athletics, Aneta Konieczek - athletics, Elżbieta Wójcik - boxing, Klaudia Zwolińska - canoe slalom, Szymon Sajnok - track cycling, Natalia Bajor - table tennis, Patrycja Adamkiewicz - taekwondo, Karol Majchrzak - tennis)
• Buenos Aires 2018 - 5 (Pia Skrzyszkowska - athletics, Kornelia Fiedkiewicz - swimming, Jakub Kraska - swimming, Jakub Majerski - swimming, Iga Świątek - tennis)

5 = most Olympic appearances (Paweł Spisak - equestrian, Paweł Korzeniowski - swimming, Mikołaj Burda - rowing)

1 = former Olympic gold medalists (Anita Włodarczyk - athletics 2012, 2016)

6 = former Olympic medalists (same as above + Karolina Naja - canoe sprint bronze 2012, 2016, Marta Walczykiewicz - canoe sprint silver 2016, Maja Włoszczowska - MTB silver 2008, 2016, Rafał Majka - road cycling bronze 2016, Piotr Małachowski - athletics silver 2008, 2016, Wojciech Nowicki - athletics bronze 2016, Monika Chabel, Agnieszka Kobus-Zawojska, Maria Sajdak - rowing bronze 2016, Agnieszka Wieszczek-Kordus wrestling bronze 2008, Zofia Noceti-Klepacka - sailing bronze 2012)

 

[Nickyc707 382]

 

Appearances: 29th. One of three countries together with France and Switzerland to have competed at every summer and winter Olympics. 

 

Team : 376 (176 men, 200 women). GB's largest delegation to an overseas OG and the first time women competitors have exceeded the number of men.

 

Oldest: Carl Hester, 54 (DOB 29/6/67) - Equestrian

 

Youngest: Sky Brown, 13 (DOB 12/7/08) - Skateboarding

 

Longevity: Carl Hester is competing at his 6th Olympic Games since his debut in 1992. Only one GB athlete has competed at more Games.

 

Archer Naomi Folkard is competing at her 5th consecutive Games. Only two female GB athletes have competed at more Games.

 

Siblings:

 

1/ Tom & Emily Ford (Rowing)

 

2/ Jennifer & Jessica Gadirova  (Gymnastics)

 

3/ Charlotte & Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne (Rowing)

 

4/ Joe & Max Litchfield (Swimming)

 

5/ Luke & Pat McCormack (Boxing)

 

6/ Harry & Hannah Martin (Hockey)

 

7/ Andy & Jamie Murray (Tennis)

 

8/ Tiffany Porter & Cindy Sember (Athletics)

 

9/ Hannah & Jodie Williams (Athletics)

 

10/ Adam & Simon Yates (Cycling)

 

Twins:

 

1/ Jennifer & Jessica Gadirova (Gymnastics)

 

2/ Luke & Pat McCormack (Boxing)

 

3/ Adam & Simon Yates (Cycling)

 

Trivia: The oldest athlete ever to win an Olympic medal in athletics was "Tebbs" Lloyd Johnson who was from my home town of Melton Mowbray in the English Midlands. He was aged 48 years and 15 days when he won a bronze medal in the 50Km walk at the 1948 Games.

[maestro 652]

On 17/07/2021 at 07:51, Makedonas said:

Athletes from Greece but representing other countries:

I was searching yesterday and randomly found these athletes with greek roots.

 

 Nefeli Papadakis, who will compete in judo, at the 78kg category. She has said that her grandparents were immigrants to the US and includes them in her role models.

 

 fencer Katina Proestakis, who will compete in foil. She will become the second ever female fencer from Chile to compete in the olympics, first to do it in foil. She is 19 years old and is no7 in junior ranking. She will look to become the first female fencer from Chile to win an olympic bout, though that will be difficult, as in fencing experience is very important. I know she has been living in the US for some years now, but I couldn't find what her relation to Greece is. 

 

Of course, in addition to these,  Helen Maroulis will compete in wrestling, at the 57kg category. She will be returning to the olympics five years after her historic gold, beating  Yoshida in the final and ending the 89-match winning streak the Japanese was running at the time.

 

[Makedonas 2,155]

13 minutes ago, maestro said:

I was searching yesterday and randomly found these athletes with greek roots.

 

 Nefeli Papadakis, who will compete in judo, at the 78kg category. She has said that her grandparents were immigrants to the US and includes them in her role models.

 

 fencer Katina Proestakis, who will compete in foil. She will become the second ever female fencer from Chile to compete in the olympics, first to do it in foil. She is 19 years old and is no7 in junior ranking. She will look to become the first female fencer from Chile to win an olympic bout, though that will be difficult, as in fencing experience is very important. I know she has been living in the US for some years now, but I couldn't find what her relation to Greece is. 

 

Of course, in addition to these,  Helen Maroulis will compete in wrestling, at the 57kg category. She will be returning to the olympics five years after her historic gold, beating  Yoshida in the final and ending the 89-match winning streak the Japanese was running at the time.

 

Yes, I discussed it in the thread about athletes with origins from other countries.

 

I've heard of Papadakis before, she spends some time training in Greece with Teltsidou when she's in Europe. Her father is Greek and her mother is Filipino I believe.

 

Of course I knew about Maroulis, after not being selected to the US team for London she wanted to compete for Greece but there were paperwork delays apparently. Anyways her grandmother still lives on Kalamos island and they named the main square after her when she won gold in Rio 2016 (for people who don't know it's a very small island, only a few hundred inhabitants so this is a big deal)

 

I didn't know about Proestakis before, that's interesting.

 

There's also  Alexander Massialas and  Sabrina Massialas in fencing,  Elena Vesnina in tennis (her maternal grandfather was Pontian Greek),  Alex Kessidis in wrestling (his brother competed for Greece in Olympic qualifying)

 

With so many Greeks in Australia, I'm surprised there aren't any Greek-Australians competing for Australia. Nick Kyrgios in tennis (who I personally dislike) withdrew from the Games. There is a water polo player named Lea Yanitsas but she is not Greek, her husband is and she uses his name.

[OlympicIRL 5,532]

IRELAND

 

 

Ireland's team officially includes 116 athletes consisting of 61 men and 55 women.

 

The flagbearers for the Opening Ceremony will be boxers Kellie Harrington and Brendan Irvine.

 

For all sorts of details, click on the Olympic Federation of Ireland link below:

 

 

Meet the team....

 

 

 

116 athletes	61 men athletes
	55 women athletes
72 events	20 sports

 

 

Team Ireland Guide

 

 

 

[Faris 2]

On 19/07/2021 at 16:19, Nickyc707 said:

Trivia: The oldest athlete ever to win an Olympic medal in athletics was "Tebbs" Lloyd Johnson who was from my home town of Melton Mowbray in the English Midlands. He was aged 48 years and 15 days when he won a bronze medal in the 50Km walk at the 1948 Games.

Olympedia says
Matt McGrath     20 December 1875     USA     Athletics     Hammer Throw, Men     10 July 1924     2     48 years 203 days
Lloyd Johnson     7 April 1900     GBR     Athletics     50 kilometres Walk, Men     31 July 1948     3     48 years 115 days

[Milan 26]

 

For Croatia 59 Athletes (Smallest delegation since 1992) in 16 sports (in Rio it was 18, in London 17).

 

39 males and 20 females.

 

34 athletes will be debutants, 25 are former Olympians.

 

Oldest athlete should be Snježana Pejčić (Shooting, 39 years), youngest is Ema Rajić (Swimming, 21). Rajić is the only one born in 2000.

 

Pejčić is also one of seven athletes, for whom this will be the fourth consecutive Olympics. The others are Petar Gorša (Shooting), Šime Fantela (Sailing), Marin Čilić (Tennis), Andrej Gaćina (Table Tennis), Maro Joković and Andro Bušlje (both Water Polo).

 

Oldest debutant is Darija Jurak (Tennis, 37), who is indeed our fourth oldest athlete in Tokyo.

 

Former Olympic gold medallists are Sara Kolak (Javelin Throw), Sandra Perković (Discus Throw), Martin and Valent Sinković (Rowing), Sime Fantela (Sailing), Josip Glasnović (Shooting), Maro Joković, Andro Bušlje and Paulo Obradović (Water Polo).

 

Damir Martin (Rowing), Tonci Stipanović (Sailing), Snjezana Pejčić (Shooting), Marko Bijać, Luka Bukić, Xavier Garcia, Luka Lončar and Marko Macan (all Water Polo) have also won Olympic medals in the past.

 

Perković, Joković, Buslje, Martin and the Sinković brothers are trying to win their third Olympic medal.

 

Ivan Dodig (Tennis) and Paulo Obradović are the only former Olympians who did not participate in Rio.

 

Siblings present at this Olympics are the Sinković brothers (Rowing) and the Fantela brothers (Sailing). Anton Glasnović, who is the brother of Josip Glasnović, has participated at the Olympics in the past.

For the first time since 1992 Croatia has qualified only one team in team sports, which is the main reason for the comparatively low number of athletes. It is also the first time since the 2000 Olympics that Croatia failed to qualify in Handball.