Makedonas

I'm not from Poland, but I agree that this is scary if it happens.

I am so confused. All I know is that our girls have a chance to qualify for Tokyo, and I will be so happy if they make it. In 2016 we beat Spain in the group stage but still didn't qualify and Spain qualified, so I'm not sure what to think.

Can someone with more knowledge than me explain this please? Is it true? I don't really know how this works but I disagree with it if these are the new laws. I am not anti-LGBT or anything, but I disagree with the idea of having people compete in women's sports if they are biologically male.

Should be Croatia, Greece, Montenegro getting these spots. Would be surprised otherwise.

No I did not feel disrespected or anything. I understand why many people feel this way about our team and in some way I agree. I just wanted to say that we are probably better than people think. Since Rio we've beaten Russia three times, Australia twice, Spain, Hungary, Italy, and the Netherlands. However all of these were in 2017/2018. The best team we've beaten since was China...

If that happens, then they should also get a refund on the tuition they paid.

We lost 11-9 to the Netherlands at the 2019 worlds, 13-10 to Hungary at the 2020 Euros, and 7-5 to Italy at the 2020 Euros. We are definitely the underdogs, but I think people underestimate us. It's not like we got destroyed by these teams, and we have a lot of good young players (just look at how many medals these girls won at youth competitions). Plus we have no pressure on us which is a benefit. Again, I am not saying we will win but we are definitely capable of pulling off a surprise result. Also despite lockdowns, our girls were approved to be training together while some other countries couldn't train.

Thank you. I am not too sure. I think we have a lot of chances for medals, but we don't have too many clear favorites. We have a lot of good young athletes in athletics, swimming, rowing, sailing and some other sports, so I think 2024 will be much better. 5 of our 6 medalists from 2016 will be back in 2020, and I think some will win medals again. Petrounias if he qualifies I think will surely get a medal. Stefanidi I think also has a very good chance, but I don't think it would be gold again. Anna Korakaki has done very well since Rio but it will be hard to repeat what she did in 2016, I still think she has a good chance to win at least one medal. Our sailing team Mantis/Kagialis won bronze in 2016 but I think it will be hard for them to win another medal because they're old now. We have a lot of people who have won world championship medals in recent years like Maria Prevolaraki (wrestling), Kristian Gkolomeev (swimming), Theodora Gkountoura (fencing), Apostolos Telikostoglou (taekwondo), Eleni Chatziliadou (karate) and maybe some others that I am forgetting. So these are all chances for medals, and of course we have men's basketball if they qualify, men's water polo, Stefanos Tsitsipas which will have big expectations. Again though, we don't have too many clear favorites to win medals but a lot of people with some chances. We could end Tokyo with 2 medals or we could end with 15 . If I had to make a prediction, it would be about 5-6 medals. There are also some others in athletics, shooting, swimming and sailing that have some chances, maybe judo, boxing, rowing and cycling but I don't expect it.

Anneta Kyridou won bronze here in the women's single sculls at age 21. She was training all year for lightweights and then in late July/early August switched back to regular rowing and within two and a half months won gold at the European U23 Championships and bronze at the senior level in Poznan. Aikaterini Nikolaidou is another example. In 2013 and 2014 she won silver at the World Championships in the lightweight single sculls, then switched and in 2015 won silver in the women's double sculls (and then 4th in Rio 2016). So it is possible for some of these lightweight rowers to achieve great results in regular categories too. Though both are 180cm so they aren't typical lightweight rowers I guess. That's a good point, but also we have weight categories in plenty of other sports like weightlifting, taekwondo, wrestling and others. Personally I'd like to see heavyweight artistic gymnastics

Sorry but this is not true. Greece didn't select the flag bearer yet, though Anna is one of the top prospects for that position along with Stefanidi and Petrounias. There are also some rumors about Tsitsipas and Antetokounmpo but I don't think they deserve it since they never played at the Olympics before and the others already won gold medals.

I agree. I am really hoping to see our women make it but we need a lot of luck. I think I would be less angry if we made it in 2012, that was when we were really robbed. We are not as good as we were back then and we only have two of the same players. My only hope is that our new coach somehow transforms this team. There should be 12 teams instead of 10. I thought expanding it from 8 to 10 would increase our chances, but instead they just went to Canada and South Africa I am confident the men will make it but not sure about basketball, we always have great players in NBA and Euroleague but choke in Olympic qualifying and always have a lot of injuries during Olympic years. I think our women's artistic swimming team has a good chance to make it but they won't win a medal. Sorry for making it off topic.

I agree about Elina Tzengko and would like to add our women's rowing team of Christina Bourmpou and Maria Kyridou in the women's pair They have achieved amazing results together over the past few years. 2018 (as 17 year olds) GOLD at European Junior Championships GOLD at World Junior Championships GOLD at European U23 Championships GOLD at Youth Olympics 4th at World U23 Championships 2019 (as 18 year olds) GOLD at World U23 Championships GOLD at European U23 Championships 5th at European Championships 11th at World Championships 2020 (as 19 year olds) SILVER at European U23 Championships BRONZE at European Championships They have already qualified for Tokyo and will be 20 years old there (they were both 18 when they earned qualification). They are very young for rowing, but they keep improving every year. If we had World Championships in 2020, I think they would've finished somewhere between 6th and 8th or so. A medal in Tokyo might be too tough for them, but I think they have a very good chance to reach Final A, and from there anything can happen.

Thank you

So only one boat per country can qualify from the European regatta? Greece should make it in women's single sculls and men's single sculls and possibly women's lightweight double sculls, so I guess we can only have one of those boats make it and then the other two go to the final qualification regatta? Forgive me because I'm not sure how this works. We also have some chances to qualify in men's lightweight double sculls and women's double sculls. I know we are also trying for men's four but it seems unlikely. The team that finished 4th in London and 8th in Rio is all gone. The new athletes in the men's four are too young for Tokyo.

Eleni Chatziliadou needs to qualify here. She won gold at the last World Championships (2018). She couldn't qualify from the ranking because she was injured. For us she is a big chance to win a medal in Tokyo, really hoping she can qualify but I'm nervous about her.

People here seem to think it's unlikely that Petrounias will qualify. I'm not so sure about that. He posted on Instagram a while back that he is 99% qualified, because the Chinese guy in first place won't be able to accept the quota? I don't know what to believe, but I think he definitely deserves to be there not only as the Olympic champion, but also as the 2017 and 2018 world champion and fourth place in 2019 when he just came back from injury. Maybe he knows something we don't if he believes that he qualified for Tokyo.

Well done Greece! I think we should have no problems to qualify for Tokyo. Hopefully we can fight for a medal there. I believe we have a chance with our very strong and young team.

Really unfair that South Africa automatically gets in. I also think it's unfair for China and Australia too, even though they are at least decent teams. Canada are somewhat decent as well, but I disagree with this whole qualification process Greece and the Netherlands both missed out in 2012 and 2016. The Dutch hosted in 2016 but still couldn't make it. I really hope Greece can make it this year but I know it will be tough. I must say that if anyone is trying to decide who to support here, I believe us Greeks really deserve some support. 2009-2012 we had an incredible cycle. 4th at 2009 World Championships, silver at 2010 European Championships, gold at 2011 World Championships, and silver at 2012 European Championships. Also won World League bronze in 2010 and 2012. Sadly, the World Championships did not offer Olympic quota places back then, and our entire qualification was decided on one match against Spain. We lost, and Spain went on to win silver in London. Really unlucky for us. 2013-16 we did okay. Didn't win any medals but finished 5th or 6th at every World/Euro Champs during that cycle. Once again, our Olympic hopes were decided on one match. This time against Russia, and we led 9-7 in the fourth period and then 10-9 but conceded with four seconds left and then lost on penalties. Russia went on to win bronze at the Rio Olympics. 2017-20...well we had some good results (second in 2018 European Championships and won the 2018 Europa Cup), but 2019 and 2020 were not so good for us, 8th at 2019 World Championships and 6th at 2020 European Championships. After those disappointing results, we got a new coach and our best player Alexandra Asimaki (former FINA World player of the year) announced her return to the national team. Sadly, coronavirus changed some plans and she decided to finish her career. We also lost another great player in Alkisti Avramidou, who never made it to the Olympics in her incredible career. Other great players we had who never made it to the Olympics include Eleni Kouvdou and Triantafyllia Manolioudaki, they both stopped after 2016. People who follow water polo know these names very well. I do hope that with this new coach we can surprise people here and manage to qualify for Tokyo. I know it will be really tough but a lot of our girls have experience playing for Olympiakos (one of the best clubs in Europe) despite our average age being just 22 and we only have one player over 26. These young girls have achieved a lot and won the European U19 and U17 championships and medals at the World U20 and U18 championships. If they don't make it to Tokyo, I hope they can keep improving and make it to Paris 2024. Also doesn't help that our best young player Stefania Charalampidi decided to play for USA (she moved there when she was 17) even though she was born and raised in Greece... Anyways I just wanted to let people know more about our team. I don't want to make it seem like I am complaining but I think it would be a really nice story if our girls can finally get back to the Olympics for the first time since 2008. This team has been through a lot. I'm confident our men's team will qualify again, but our women need this. An elite team should not be excluded from the Olympics three times in a row.