Sailing ILCA 6 World Championships 2024

Makedonas · January 11, 2024

23 hours ago, Mateus Nagime said:

but so what happens to her 2023 quota?

It stays in Portugal?

Or if she wants to compete for Greece, can go to Greece?

Or would it go to Finland's Monika Mikkola, 25th at the World?
Or Last chance regatta?

I don't know.

13 hours ago, phelps said:

the rule is simple: an athlete can switch her Nationality and compete for a new Country only after 3 full years (up to the exact day) he/she made the last appearance with the "old" Nation, unless there's a mutual agreement between said "old" Country and the "new" one (which isn't the case of Karachaliou, therefore she will be able to represent at the Olympics only after 3 full years from her last regatta representing . that keeps her out of the 2024 Games)

In her case she is unlucky that the last Olympics were in 2021 and not 2020, as she would've otherwise been eligible. Anyways, this is the decision she chose to make and she said from Day 1 that she knew Greece would probably not agree to let her go and she accepted missing the 2024 Games if it came down to that, so she clearly knows she is not entitled to participate in the Olympics for a random country (I mean that in the nicest possible way but let's be honest she has nothing to do with Portugal).

Her issues with our sailing federation were well documented for years, and she says our Olympic committee knew and did nothing about it and only tried to help once she said she was looking for another country instead, and at that point she made her decision to leave (even though she still did not know to which country she would go to).

Still, I think she should have given it one more chance because our Olympic committee actually was willing to help her (and it's not like we have anyone else in ILCA 6 who can challenge her for the quota), and for an athlete to make this decision knowing she will miss the Olympics is a big deal, although she clearly had her reasons for it.