Makedonas

Also my favourite result of these European Parliament elections was Fredi Beleris getting elected. He was first elected mayor of Himara, Albania (heavily ethnic Greek minority town) in May 2023 and ever since then he has been wrongfully imprisoned by corrupt Albanian authorities who claim he bought votes but have no real evidence of it. This caused diplomatic tensions between Greece and Albania. Then in April 2024, Greek PM Mitsotakis announced that Beleris would be a candidate for European Parliament. In May 2024, Albanian PM Edi Rama held a big provocative rally in Athens with about 5000 people who are Albanians who live and work in Greece (hundreds of thousands of Albanians migrated to Greece in the 1990s so there is a big community). So now a few days ago in the elections Beleris was elected to European Parliament! He is still imprisoned by the Albanian authorities but it was a very symbolic gesture. For many decades the Greek minority in Albania felt neglected by Greece so this really shows that we are not neglecting them. There were big celebrations in Himara, with people waving Greek flags and singing the Greek national anthem, and also with Greek songs and dancing and a lot of fireworks. It will be interesting to see the new developments but it would be very important for the Greek minority of Albania to have a voice in European Parliament! Our PM also said during these tensions in the past year that Albania will not join EU under these circumstances until the situation for the Greek minority improves. Also I'm not sure if there have ever been celebrations like this in one country about elections in another country?

Tsipras is a real idiot, I never liked him and never voted for him but was willing to give him a chance at the very beginning, but no, he was really a joke and it was so embarrassing as a Greek to have him as a PM for 4 years and representing us. He made Greece seem like a low class country to the world. What a difference now with Mitsotakis who is actually well dressed, sophisticated, and well spoken in multiple languages. Also Tsipras' extreme left policies were terrible. I am glad that the nightmare is over. He will go down in history as possibly the biggest traitor in Greek history, as well as many of his buddies like Kotzias and Filis. It's honestly a miracle Greece didn't lose any territory while he was PM, but it might have been possible if he had another term because his foreign policy was so bad.

None of this was ever caused by Greece yet somehow other European countries expected us to be the ones to have to deal with millions of migrants passing through our country? And when the neighbouring countries closed their borders and millions of them were stuck in Greece, then what? It is very difficult for Greece to protect our borders when we have thousands of islands, we are not some landlocked country like Hungary who can put up a fence, and a lot of European countries did not understand this and did not offer to help us, they only criticised from far away. Greece's borders are Europe's borders. The Greek coast guard did, and continues to do a very very good job and we get zero credit for this. The Greek people were also way more compassionate to refugees/migrants than most other countries and in the end people were still extremely ungrateful. It's so easy to point the finger at Greece and so many western European countries who created these problems decided to make Greece somehow responsible for dealing with the consequences of their failures. I remember 6 EU countries (including hypocritical Germany) were siding with non-EU Turkey over Greece on this in 2020, which was totally ridiculous as the Turks were smuggling people into Greece on a daily basis and putting their lives at risk. But we know from history that Turkey and especially now with Erdogan, can get away with anything and face zero consequences.

The best part of these Championships ending is that I no longer have to deal with the crappy live results, which were constantly not working for me even though I made an account on their stupid website

Yes, and a silver medal! His third "big" medal of his career and Greece's third of this Championships. Also 4th in the world for him this outdoor season. He was a surprise 4th place in Tokyo, but now I think the expectations will be much higher for him in Paris, let's see. I was hoping he could get Filippidis' NR of 5.91 here, but he only had one failed attempt at 5.92, then tried for 5.97 once and 6.02 once. I know he was trying to still beat Mondo but it was impossible, I wish he just took more attempts at 5.92 and tried to get the national record but I won't complain

2024 European Athletics Championships: Gold: Miltiadis Tentoglou - men's long jump Silver: Emmanouil Karalis - men's pole vault Ekaterini Stefanidi- women's pole vault

Holger Rune is good on clay courts, he has at least a small chance to win a medal in Paris!

Gkolomeev won silver in the men's 50 freestyle in 2019 also and consistently makes finals in that event, but usually misses the podium. He made it in 2022, 2023, and the weak 2024 one as well for example. Christou was also 5th in Budapest 2022 (with a CR in the semifinal but was disappointing in the final), but actually he said his main event for Paris will be the 200 backstroke which is surprising but he just swam it in 1:56.34 a few weeks ago in Greece so we'll see. There is also Siskos in that event who made the final of the Worlds last year as an 18 yo. As for Stefanidi, she has a history of peaking on the big stage which is why I mentioned her. We thought she wouldn't get close to the podium in Tokyo but had a big SB and got 4th and now her silver in Rome is giving be false hope so let me dream again and also she just beat Caudery at the Europeans so you never know, there are often surprises in the women's pole vault... Also I'd like to remind you I said some of these have small chances, I am in no way expecting any of our swimmers or Stefanidi to win medals in Paris

I don't know why, but will get to race in the final now

I heard that Emmanouilidou and Tzengko could not find bougatsa in Rome before their finals last night, which explains why the two girls from the Thessaloniki area (FYI for non-Greeks we are known for this pastry in that part of Greece) had disappointing results Still though good for these two young girls (20 yo and 21 yo) to make the top 8 of Europe even though more was expected of them, this will give them a lot of ranking points to make it to Paris hopefully

Also I think the wildcards for gold medalists or Grand Slam winners are weird, in what other sport do you get a wildcard into the Olympics because you used to be good 5-10 years ago?

Yeah, and if Korpatsch wants to play, I'm sure she will get an exception to do so. I know she spent a lot of time outside the top 100 the last four years so I am sure Germany can say she was "available" but they didn't choose her, also she had some injuries in the past year and I think I remember hearing that she was going to make her BJK debut but then got injured. Also I know she used to be scared to fly and would only play in Europe so that's another excuse for her not playing BJK Cup.

@Josh@TedI would agree that 5-6 is my expectation, though my wish is for 10+ In addition to those mentioned, I think Gkountoura (fencing - women's sabre) and Teltsidou (judo - women's 70kg) are also very good chances for medals. Of course, smaller chances also for Tselidis in judo, Kougioumtsidis in wrestling, our men's basketball team if they qualify (which we always say and they never end up qualifying ), some of our other rowing teams (though I think both women's crews will probably be expected to finish top 6 but not on the podium), maybe someone in swimming can surprise (we've won some World Championships medals recently and I think there will be some Greeks making finals or top 8 in open water as in Tokyo but no one is really expected to actually win a medal but we'll see). Also, in athletics obviously Tentoglou is the favourite for gold as Josh mentioned, we don't have anyone else in my opinion who is expected to win a medal but I think Stefanidi, Karalis, Drisbioti, and Tzengko will all have some chances (even if small) and none of them winning medals would be shocking.

I don't think it is confirmed, the Wikipedia page is unreliable, for example why are they saying Korpatsch is out? However, I think she will probably get in in the end. I don't think Cirstea will play, and if the protected ranking rule that I read today regarding Badosa is true (that you can only use it for two of Grand Slams/Olympics) then Osaka and Kerber will get in via Grand Slam/Olympic exception, so that will clear up two spots (and then of course Wozniacki/Raducanu would be out). Also, we don't know for sure if Begu for example will use her protected ranking, she chose to not go to Tokyo so maybe she doesn't care about OG anymore.

Didn't M. Andreeva also like some pro-war posts on social media? Also, does Kasatkina have any intention to compete in Paris as she has been outspoken against the war?

Also it's good to see Emmanouilidou into the women's 200 final, with a new U23NR. Her first big final, the first of many hopefully... Unfortunately because of that she didn't compete in the 4x100 relay, and Tsoukala also withdrew from the team due to injury, and we got 15th place... It feels like I've been waiting years for us to send our strongest team in the 4x100 relay and always at least one of our good girls is injured (and we lack depth so it makes a big difference). Emmanouilidou also didn't run at the Balkan Championships this year, and we skipped the World Relays. I guess I'll now have to wait for 2025

Good result for Stefanidi, the 6th consecutive European Outdoor Championships where she won a medal! She saw people here talking about Tentoglou's consistency the other day and said "hold my beer" Also nice to see her finally qualified for Paris. Obviously she was going to make it by ranking anyways but I'm sure it's a relief for her. This is probably her last big medal so I'm happy for her, just too bad she couldn't get gold but it is what it is. I'm sure she's thrilled to win a medal here considering her poor form the last few years.

Yes but for someone like her being one of the best doubles players in the world, she would have some chances for a medal! Also it's Mertens, she plays (or at least used to) like every week in every tournament possible anyways

Afroditi Latinopoulou, who peaked in the WTA rankings in 2010 as a 19 yo at number 1067, gets elected to the European Parliament She has wins from ITF tournaments over Maria Sakkari and Valentini Grammatikopoulou

Athletics +1 Ekaterini Stefanidi (women's pole vault)

It's strange because she actually had a decent shot at a medal in mixed doubles (all of the 16 teams will have chances). It's crazy to me that athletes are able to qualify for the Olympics and choose not to go, but clearly not everyone has the same priorities. I guess that's why I'm here on a website about the Olympics and people like Elise Mertens are not

Well this doesn't take into account the players using protected rankings, but also Mertens will not play and probably not Cirstea either. Also probably some girls will get injured between now and Paris and withdraw.

Vekic isn't good on clay and won't even be seeded in singles so I don't think 3 tournaments will be much for her, but anyways Martic is 79 in singles which I don't think will be enough to get in unless there are a lot of withdrawals, probably the cutoff will be around 70 before withdrawals. Which is unfortunate because I would like to see her make the Olympics once in her career (and she will be 37 in 2028...), but also she has herself to blame for not caring to go to Tokyo when she had the ranking for it.

The new perhaps, with these 4th place finishes?

They "bend the rules" like this all the time, there are many examples, especially when a player recently rose up like O'Connell did. He spent most of this Olympic cycle out of the top 100 and only recently is now well inside the top 100. It really was not realistic for Australia to select him in Davis Cup in 2021 or 2022 for example. Badosa is a good example, she spent most of the time between Rio and Tokyo well outside the top 100, where it would have been illogical for a country like Spain with multiple higher ranked players to choose her for BJK Cup during those years, then in 2020/2021 she rose up a lot in the rankings so Spain was able to get the exception for her to go to Tokyo. Now a player like Sorana Cirstea should not get an exemption to play in Paris because she has consistently been one of Romania's top 2 players and hasn't played BJK Cup since 2018.