Makedonas

23 yo diver Nikolaos Molvalis (25th at the 2023 Worlds in 10m platform) He was our biggest chance to qualify a diver to the Olympics for the first time since 2012. He didn't develop as we thought after he was 23rd in 2019 as a 19 yo but still seemed to have a solid chance at qualifying for Paris. He said he didn't want to take a year off school to risk it for the Olympics (it case he didn't qualify) especially since he doesn't have a program with a high enough difficulty score to fulfill his Olympic dream. He said that we don't have the facilities to attempt more difficult dives, that there are only two pools in all of Greece with such capability, otherwise he would risk injury. He blamed the Greek federation for not being able to protect his future, and he said that if he made a mistake at the 2024 Worlds and didn't qualify for Paris because of it, that he would waste a year of his life (not being able to study) and that it was too much of a risk. He said when he notified the federation of his decision to stop diving, they didn't even care or try to help him or convince him to stay, they were indifferent and did not even thank him for his contributions to the sport in our country (being by far our best diver of the last decade, not that it's a high standard but still). He said only the national team coach reached out to him and thanked him and supported him. No one else from the federation cared.

https://aquafeed24.com/big-interview-aqf24-drimy-katigoro-orgi-kai-apokalypseis-apo-krystalenia-gialama-elena-fragkaki/ Ελλαδιστάν...

MARINA SATTI - MANTISSA

When will teams be announced?

Any news on the United Cup for 2024?

Maria making a big push to the WTA Finals. She was 16th in the race before Guadalajara, then she was 9th after winning. Now she made the SF in Tokyo and QF (so far) in Beijing. She's still 9th but the gap is only 405 points now. I'm not sure if she can make it though, she probably needs to beat Gauff and make the Beijing SF to have a realistic chance, otherwise she will need to win Zhengzhou and then take a WC to a 250 and make the final, and that's if others ahead of her don't gain any points in the meantime...

I have a question, in the past there were three Olympic quota places for the apparatus events, now there is only one for each? I've been reading some conflicting things from Greek sources so I figure I'd ask here, Petrounias can still qualify even without gold because the Chinese aren't eligible for more quota places? I am not so sure and would appreciate some guidance here. Thank you.

Well most of this is accurate but some changes have to be made. I said 0 for triathlon, but Bitados seems likely to make it now so we will have 1 hopefully. I also said 0 for sprint canoeing, but it seems that Dimopoulos can possibly make it (I'm not expecting it but there's a chance). Also our 0-1 for equestrian looks like it will end up being 1 in the end, our first time being represented in equestrian since 2004 if all goes as expected On the other hand, 2-3 for boxing seems too optimistic now, I would say 0-2 is my current prediction. This is mostly because Tsanikidis retired and Pita has disappeared, and they were the two boxers I expected to make it the most. However, Papadatou is a nice surprise and I think she can make it and maybe one other. We should still get 1 for Road Cycling, but 1 for Mountain Bike seems impossible as our best cyclist switched to road cycling, and 1-2 in Track Cycling should now be 0-1 as Volikakis retired. I'm hoping Milaki can make it but she'll probably just miss out. I said 2-3 for Judo, and now it's looking like just 2. Ntanatsidis retired and the younger athletes aren't ready so I don't really see how we could possibly get a third judoka. Basketball was 0-24 but now it's 0-12 as the women's team has been eliminated. Diving was 0-2 but I'll say 0-1 now as 23 yo Molvalis (our best hope) retired a few days ago We had a bad year in weightlifting at the senior level, so 1-2 is probably not happening, hopefully we can somehow keep our qualification streak alive but it's probably done... 15-20 for swimming is too optimistic, some of our youngsters from Tokyo have underperformed (Englezakis, Makrygiannis, Papastamos) and I think 10-15 is what we should expect at this point. Sailing has been a disaster, 5-10 is too much, I think 3-8 is a better prediction now. Tennis I said 2-3 and I'd like to change it to 2-4, we have one male doubles and two female doubles players all just outside the top 100, so we can probably send one of each to play with Tsitsipas and Sakkari.

I have been to the museum at Panathenaic Stadium in Athens which is cool but very small (the stadium itself is much more impressive). I've also been to the Thessaloniki Olympic Museum which for me was my favourite, although non-Greeks I'm sure would not find it anywhere near as interesting (it's mostly different Greek Olympians, from Thessaloniki or other areas nearby, who gave some of their Olympic kits, equipment, etc.). Not Olympic-related but I enjoyed the museum at Wimbledon in London

For Miltiadis Tentoglou (athletics) Katerina Stefanidi (athletics) We usually choose people with Olympic success in the past, and the only other past gold medalists either carried the flag already (Petrounias, Korakaki), retired after Tokyo (Tsoulfa), or are competing the day after (Ntouskos).

While we're at it, Turkey illegally invaded Cyprus in 1974, ethnically cleansed the Greek population from the northern part of the island, and still to this day they occupy that part of the island. Thousands of indigenous Greek natives are still missing. The rest still can't go back to their homes almost 50 years later. There were never any sanctions by the IOC and other sports governing bodies back then or today, or ever. The only thing that happened was that as a reward for invading in 1974, the EBU invited Turkey to make their Eurovision debut in 1975 (Greece withdrew because of this). The point is, it would be nice if there is some consistency in people selectively pushing for some countries to be banned but not others.

I think it's even more crazy how many Ukrainian athletes were bought by Azerbaijan. These Ukrainians compete for Azerbaijan and win medals for them. They are fully sponsored by the Azeri government and the evil dictator Aliyev. It's the biggest example of sports propaganda! At the same time, Aliyev is ethnically cleansing Armenians while something similar is happening to Ukrainians by Putin. I think it's really shameful for these Ukrainians to be representing Azerbaijan and supporting the country which is doing the same thing to Armenians that Russia is doing to them

Thanks for the constant reminders

2023 Davis Cup World Group I: Greece 1-3 Slovakia Alex Molcan SVK d. Alexandros Skorilas GRE 6-1 6-1 Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Lukas Klein SVK 6-7(3) 7-6(5) 4-0 ret. Klein SVK/Zelenay SVK d. Tsitsipas GRE/Tsitsipas GRE 6-3 6-7(5) 6-3 Alex Molcan SVK d. Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE 7-6(6) 4-6 6-3

She did it! I am so happy and so proud of her! She has suffered so many heartbreaking losses, she is such a nice person though and worked so hard, I'm really pleased to see this. So many people both inside Greece and outside Greece have said so many terrible, mean things about her for too long, so unjustified, but in the end she got her revenge on all of these miserable jealous people

Before I couldn't see it, now I can

I can't see it.

in for the win

Azerbaijan will be sanctioned when? Or it is okay for them to commit genocide against Armenians in 2023, only Russia is bad?

Come on, Maria! You have many mouths to close tonight!

After making the semifinals, Prevolaraki lost 3 bouts in a row I still think she will make it to Paris though

Wrestling +1 Georgios Kougioumtsidis (men's -74 kg)

Azerbaijan is probably the worst, not just talking about wrestling either. They won 7 medals in Tokyo, only 2 of them were from athletes actually born in Azerbaijan. In Rio they won 17 medals, only 5 from athletes born in Azerbaijan...