Makedonas

I'm going to address this because I already know people will complain tomorrow if we exchange 12 points (there are rumours that the Greek jury won't give 12 to Cyprus because the song was originally submitted to represent Greece in 2023 and there is some drama, but obviously the tele vote will be 12 points each way). Unlike Norway-Sweden for example, Greece-Cyprus have the same ethnicity (most people who live in Cyprus are ethnic Greeks aka Greek-Cypriots), language, culture, and music industry. Also, many Greeks from Greece have represented Cyprus in Eurovision, and many Greek-Cypriots have represented Greece. Let's look at Cyprus' recent history in Eurovision: 2024-Silia Kapsis, Australian born to a Greek-Cypriot father and Greek mother from Thessaloniki 2023-Andrew Lambrou, Australian born to a Greek-Cypriot father and Greek mother from Limnos 2022-Andromache, a singer from Greece 2021-Elena Tsagrinou, a singer from Greece who is very famous in Greece (and Cyprus) 2020-Sandro Nicolas, German born to a German-American father and Greek mother from Zakynthos 2019-Tamta, originally from Georgia but lived in Greece most of her life and is a huge star in Greece (and Cyprus) 2018-Eleni Foureira, originally from Albania but lived in Greece most of her life and is a huge star in Greece (and Cyprus) And Greece had Greek-Cypriots representing us in 2015, 2012, 2011, 2007, 2006... So it's very different than Sweden and Norway voting for each other. Most Cypriots are Greek and will vote for "mother Greece" naturally, especially with someone like Marina Satti who is very famous in the Greek-speaking world, and most Greeks will vote for our "little sister Cyprus" especially with a singer like Silia Kapsis who maybe isn't very famous in Greece but speaks Greek fluently and her mother is from Thessaloniki. I could be wrong but I don't think Sweden and Norway have the same music industry as they are completely separate countries with a unique language and ethnic conscience. If you go to Cyprus (not including the illegally occupied northern part) you will see more Greek flags around than Cypriot flags. There is clearly a reason for that which I won't get into here. I'm sure if for example Belgium sent a singer with a Polish parent who spoke fluent Polish that they would get high points from Poland, and I'm sure if Kosovo had more international recognition and participated in Eurovision then them and Albania would always swap 12 points. And many countries who normally would give a song like Greece 2024 very high points are not competing this year, like Bulgaria and Romania.

Greece didn't deserve to go through?! One of the most original/unique songs ever in Eurovision, sung in native language, by an extremely charismatic performer, and also a unique performance as it was done all in one shot, without cuts or edits, just a full live 3 minutes with one camera. Even if it's not everyone's cup of tea, there is no way this was staying in the semifinal. First time since 2013 that a Greek language song is back in the final, and hopefully it will be a third consecutive top 10 for us (I'm counting 2021 and 2022, 2023 didn't exist for us ).

I wonder how many people in the arena (and also on this website, judging by some of the posts here) are aware of what happened on 7 October and that the war could easily be over if Hamas releases the remaining Israeli hostages? Or they just choose to ignore the reality of the situation and cry victim and try to blame Israel for everything?

and each into the final for the first time since 2016!

beat by 4 goals yesterday in Kozani, I don't know if the margin will be enough for us and we'll probably lose by more than 4 away, but that's still a good win for our standards Our team seems quite young too, so it's an encouraging sign. I am disappointed though that we played at 16:15 local time on a weekday, I maybe would've gone to Kozani for it, the stadium is about 1.5 hours from me by car, but the time was too early and I had other obligations...

The 4th placed team of beats the 4th placed team of 6-2 Does this mean the Premier League is overrated, as all of their teams are now out of European competitions. Perhaps they are the real farmers league?

So far no one who is going to Lucerne is competing there, and even though some boat classes didn't race yet I'd say it's probably unlikely that we'll see any of them at the national championships at this point. Of course it's the correct decision for them to not tire themselves out before the qualification regatta but I really wonder who made the decision to have the national championships this week. Maybe they were afraid of someone who wasn't selected for the Olympic team beating one of the national team members (A.Kyridou for example would probably embarrass anyone else in single sculls ).

FWIW finished 2nd in Piediluco (behind ) with a time of 6:40.38, and finished 3rd with a time of 6:40.86, so the margins are very very thin. Of course we had two races with them at the Europeans and finished above them easily (by 16+ seconds in the heat and nearly 6 seconds in SF) but anything is possible. We were also a brand new crew in Piediluco and now they had some time together, Cholopoulos is also just 17 yo (take a shot every time I mention his age and Kontou's age between now and Lucerne and possibly Paris if they qualify ).

I'm not sure why our guys weren't at the European Championships, but they were at the Piediluco regatta in late March and did well in my opinion, though it's tough to judge because the only crews already qualified for Paris that were there were Italy and Belgium. We got silver both days. On Day 1, Italy had 6:44.13, Greece had 6:44.74, and Belgium got 6:51.04. On Day 2, Italy had 6:47.04, Greece had 6:48.36, and Belgium did not compete. So going by these results, our guys should be in good form, but who knows, maybe one of them got injured and that's why we didn't go to the Europeans? Or they just wanted to use that time for extra training for Lucerne?

No quota for us but Dimopoulos missing out by 3 spots is not so bad for our standards

Θα είναι μάλλον ο Κώστας στην εθνική ομως...

Yeah, there are 16 quotas in the LW2X but so many weak crews in there. I know some people will disagree because they think having diversity at the Olympics is more important than having the best teams qualify but it seems like Greece always ends up getting screwed by these qualification procedures For our girls, Fitsiou was actually competing in coastal rowing with much success and then switched to LW2X during the pandemic to try and qualify for Tokyo. She is already 28 yo so I imagine she will try to switch back to coastal rowing for 2028, but Kontou is only 18 yo so she has more of a future in rowing and also taller than Fitsiou (I think Kontou is about 170cm and Fitsiou about 165cm), so I expect Kontou will switch to an open category for 2028.

A lot of the Greek rowers have said they stopped or thought of stopping because in rowing they can't make money, and also sometimes they were in a boat with another rower who stopped and then they couldn't find another partner so they stopped too. We also have mostly women who study in the US but now there are a few male Greek rowers who started doing it too. The thing is a lot of these women go and say they want to return to the national team when they graduate, and then they never end up coming back. Or they compete in U23 regattas during the summer, sometimes with success, and sometimes with shockingly poor results (because they probably don't train as much in the US when they are at their universities as they did when they were with the national team full-time). Another issue is that the federation (with our controversial Italian coach) requires the athletes to spend most of the year at the Olympic rowing centre, which is near Athens but in a very isolated area, and most of our rowers are from northern Greece, so they are sent away from their families, usually when they are still in high school even, and they are on a strict training schedule and have no time to study or do anything else in their lives. Stefanos Ntouskos actually said before Tokyo that he would retire if he didn't win a medal, and go to university to become a doctor, as he was already 24 yo and had no income or education, and then he won Olympic gold and got some sponsors so he continued. Also another problem that we have, and maybe Italy has too, is that a lot of our young rowers who do well are not very tall like some of the Romanians are, so the good results at young ages can be misleading, but obviously we have some athletes who were originally lightweight rowers like Ntouskos and now Evangelia Anastasiadou who have proven that you don't have to be 190cm to have a good career in the open categories. Of course there are also many exceptions where we had tall rowers with good results at young ages who also vanished for various reasons.

I was also just saying in our national club, our girls dominated the U19 World Championships in 2022, we won gold in W1X, W2-, W2X, and now you are telling me we can't even find girls to try to qualify for a W2X?! None of those five golden girls will be in Paris... One of them is studying in the USA where she competes on the rowing team, another is going to USA after the summer to do the same, another has been training with our national team but wasn't selected for Lucerne (I imagine we will see her on the U23 national team this summer at least), and the other two have not rowed in over a year either for our national team or their clubs. It's such a shame how we are constantly losing these talented young rowers. Also the Greek Rowing Championships start tomorrow and finish on Sunday, I am not sure why they thought to organise it this weekend when it is so close to the Olympic qualification regatta, hopefully some of our athletes won't be too tired when they go to Lucerne...

I'm disappointed in our team. For the most part it was expected, I just didn't know what the crews would be for W1X and W2X. Well now I see that we are sending Fragkou in W1X and no one in W2X! I'm shocked that we are sending a M2-, who have shown they have no chance to qualify here, but not a W2X who I think would've had somewhat of a chance especially if the combination was Fragkou/Kyridou. We should have good chances in M2X, LM2X, and LW2X. Hopefully at least two of those boats can qualify, otherwise it would be kind of a failure in my opinion. W1X we maybe have an outside chance as some of the mail rivals like Puspure and Janzen seem out of form. M2- we have no chance, we are wasting our time, though it is a shame because Palaiopanos really seemed on track to make it to Paris. He won bronze in M2- at the 2019 World U23 Championships, gold in M2X at the 2021 World U23 Championships, then in 2022 competed in M2X with a different partner where he got 5th at the European Championships and 6th at the World Championships, but seems to have regressed since then. He is now 25 yo and this really should be his time to make the Olympics... So far we have only qualified in M1X and W2-, so it's been disappointing but this is our last chance to change it.

You mean they replaced the rower between Lucerne and Tokyo? We have the same problem, so many girls win gold medals at the U23 and U19 World Championships, then go study in the US and then decline as rowers. Or some study in Greece and quit the sport. At least in USA they have rowing teams at the universities. So far the only successful one (who went to USA) seems to be Christina Bourmpou, but she took a year off from her studies to prepare for Paris so it is hard to say. Let's see how she does in Paris, she was 5th in Tokyo and I think she has a real chance at a medal based on what we saw last week at the European Championships.

Welcome to Fiorentina! Hopefully they will be the only foreign team participating in the final

Also really an incredible year for Olympiacos as a club, they now have a Final 4 in men's basketball, Final 4 in men's water polo, and semifinals in UEFA Conference League in men's football. They could potentially win 3 European trophies across 3 sports. Also the women's water polo team lost a few weeks ago in the final of the Champions League. I mean the men's basketball, men's water polo, and women's water polo teams are always one of Europe's best, but to have them all do it in the same year plus having the football team in their first European semifinal and very close to the final after their 2-4 away win in the first leg (we'll see what happens tomorrow) is very impressive even if it's not the top-tier competition.

First time since 2012 to have two teams in the Final Four! Actually only the 5th time ever (1994, 1995, 2009, 2012, 2024). I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened more but it seems like so many times we had one team make it but not two. Also Fenerbahce has three Greeks on the team, all are important players, and some Greeks on the coaching staff as well (even their head coach was Greek until they got rid of him a few months ago). Yet our senior national team has not qualified for the Olympics since 2008 and has not won a medal in any competition since Eurobasket 2009

Δύο χρόνια μετά και δε θα είναι καμία από αυτά τα χρυσά κορίτσια στην Ολυμπιακή μας ομάδα... Η Γκόγκου σπουδάσει πλέον στο Yale και παράλληλα είναι μέλος της κωπηλατικής ομάδας εκεί (όπου είναι και η Μπορμπου) οπότε μάλλον κάποια στιγμή θα επιστρέψει στην εθνική. Το ίδιο ισχύει για την Δαλίδου που θα αρχίσει το επόμενο εξάμηνο στο Harvard όπου είναι ήδη και η Παπαϊωαννου Χριστίνα. Η Ασβεστα συμμετέχει στα κοινόβια της εθνικής αλλά η ομοσπονδία αποφάσισε να μην στέλνει ομάδα διπλό σκιφ γυναικών στην Προολυμπιακή ρεγκάτα, μάλλον θα την δούμε στο Παγκόσμιο Κ23 τουλάχιστον (το ίδιο πιστεύω για τις Γκόγκου και Δαλίδου...). Οι Αργυράκη και Νάτσιούλα φαίνεται να έχουν σταματήσει το άθλημα δυστυχώς, ούτε τρέχουν στα πανελλήνια. Η Αργυράκη έχει από το Οκτώβρη του 2022 να συμμετέχει σε κοινόβιο της εθνικής και η Νάτσιούλα από το Δεκέμβρη του 2022. Κρίμα...

Να δούμε τώρα τι θα αποφασίσει ο αδερφός του...

Wow, I did not notice it had been that many years for them!

Happy Easter to all Orthodox! and anyone else who celebrates!

I was reading that no away team has ever won a Game 5!

Olympiacos one step closer to a historic first European final, and it would be played in Athens also Really, really massive for Greek football. Would be the first European final for a Greek football club in 53 years! Let's hope they don't mess up the second leg...