Greece National Thread

[Makedonas 2,197]

  On 3/4/2021 at 12:06 AM, Yannakis said:

 

SAILING:

 

Maria Bozi, Rafailina Klonaridou (women's 470)

 

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Well we can forget them now because the Greek Sailing Federation decided to send Ariadne-Paraskevi Spanaki and Emilia Tsoulfa instead. Tsoulfa will be 48 in Tokyo...

[Yannakis 362]

  On 3/12/2021 at 7:07 PM, Makedonas said:

Well we can forget them now because the Greek Sailing Federation decided to send Ariadne-Paraskevi Spanaki and Emilia Tsoulfa instead. Tsoulfa will be 48 in Tokyo...

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Fixed.

[Yannakis 362]

Olympic sailing duo Maria Bozi and Rafailina Klonaridou have qualified for the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.

[Makedonas 2,197]

  On 3/15/2021 at 2:30 PM, Yannakis said:

Olympic sailing duo Maria Bozi and Rafailina Klonaridou have qualified for the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.

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Yes, but Greece chose to send Spanaki/Tsoulfa instead as they finished higher at this year's World Championships. This was confirmed by the Hellenic Olympic Committee on their official Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/p/CMXCWFWAn-T/

 

Greece can only send one team unfortunately.

[Yannakis 362]

  On 3/15/2021 at 6:21 PM, Makedonas said:

Yes, but Greece chose to send Spanaki/Tsoulfa instead as they finished higher at this year's World Championships. This was confirmed by the Hellenic Olympic Committee on their official Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/p/CMXCWFWAn-T/

 

Greece can only send one team unfortunately.

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You are right. At least we have excellent saliors

 

[Makedonas 2,197]

  On 3/15/2021 at 9:29 PM, Yannakis said:

You are right. At least we have excellent saliors

 

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Fortunately for them they are young so they will have other chances in the future to go to the Olympics. I am shocked to see Tsoulfa make it, she retired 15 years ago and now is back!

[Yannakis 362]

  On 3/16/2021 at 12:08 AM, Makedonas said:

Fortunately for them they are young so they will have other chances in the future to go to the Olympics. I am shocked to see Tsoulfa make it, she retired 15 years ago and now is back!

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I still remember the moment when Emilia won the gold medal with Sofia Bekatorou in Athens 2004.

[Yannakis 362]

The Panathenaic Stadium turns green ahead of St. Patrick’s Day.

[Yannakis 362]

Rower Stefanos Douskos has qualified for the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.

[Makedonas 2,197]

  On 4/9/2021 at 6:52 PM, Yannakis said:

Rower Stefanos Douskos has qualified for the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.

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Worth noting that in men's rowing we had 8 guys in London 2012 and 8 also in Rio 2016. It looks like we will only have one in Tokyo...

 

Very disappointing, but not surprising. Our federation is a mess. Papachristos retired after finishing 4th in London, he was just 23. So did the Gkountoulas twins who finished 9th and were 27 years old, though I guess that isn't too young (or old) for rowing.

 

Then after Rio we saw more retirements. Angelopoulos finished 8th as a 24 year old. Petrou finished 6th as a 20 year old. Giannaros, who finished 6th in Rio as a 24 year old, last competed in 2018 at age 26. Magdanis was 8th in London and 6th in Rio, last competed in 2017 as a 26 year old.

 

We have a big problem in rowing and it needs to be addressed. We lost many talents. Others who retired (Christou, Konsolas, Tsilis, Tziallas) were at least in their late 20s or early 30s which is more acceptable.

 

And even just a few years ago we had good young guys like Nikolaidis and Stergiakas who I thought for sure would be in Tokyo. Now they don't compete anymore either!

 

 

And let's not forget on the women's side. Nikolaidou was 23 and Asoumanaki was 19 when they finished 4th in W2X in Rio 2016. It looks like neither will be in Tokyo! Giazitzidou was 22 and Tsiavou 26 when they stopped rowing after winning bronze in London 2012. Kalampoka won three gold medals at the World U23 Championships plus another silver and stopped rowing at age 22. There are many more examples of situations like this. It's very sad. We've lost so much talent in rowing and it's crazy that we only have 3 athletes going to Tokyo. I still think we will qualify one or two more boats (W1X and LW2X) but we should have a big rowing team winning a lot of medals and that is not happening.