Makedonas

So our LW2X won silver! Really impressive especially since Kontou is just 17 yo And our LM2X won bronze They are also quite young, 24 yo and 22 yo. Anastasiadou really should win a medal tomorrow and hopefully Ntouskos as well.

Our LW2X won their repechage after finishing 2nd in their heat, and are now in the final. I think they have a good shot at a medal but have a feeling they'll just miss out. Still, a good sign for Olympic qualification. Our men's pair didn't make it through the repechage and will be in Final C. A regatta to forget for them... Fragkou won the repechage in the women's single sculls but just finished last in her semifinal, so Final B it is. Hopefully she can finish around 8th or 9th overall. Our LM2X finished second in their semifinal and will fight for a medal in about an hour And Ntouskos finished second in his semifinal, so hopefully he can win a medal tomorrow. Especially with Damir Martin and Kjetil Borch not making it, there are opportunities for him for sure. So we sent 6 boats to Bled and made 4 finals, definitely not bad, hopefully we can get a few medals as well...

Anastasiadou won her heat easily in LW1X, so I think it would be shocking if she does not win a medal. I don't know if gold is possible though, as Cozmiuc seems almost unstoppable. Ntouskos winning his heat in M1X is also a good sign, and hopefully he can get another medal here. Our LM2X did great, finishing 2nd in their heat. So far they seem to be on the right track to qualify for Paris Our LW2X also did well and finished 2nd in their heat. Unfortunately, our men's pair was absolutely horrible, finishing 6th in their heat and by some margin. I mean, this same crew couldn't even make the A Final of the World U23s last year, so I shouldn't be too surprised... Fragkou finishing 4th out of 5 in her heat in W1X was also disappointing, but I think we will see her in another category to try and qualify for Paris.

Sakkari lost to Muchova here last year in the second round. It's a really tough draw, but at this point it seems obvious that these "draw reveals" are not random but rigged. Sad but true...

team: Men: Single Sculls: Stefanos Ntouskos Pair: Dimitrios Boukouvalas and Zisis Boukouvalas Lightweight Double Sculls: Petros Gkaidatzis and Antonios Papakonstantinou Women: Single Sculls: Evangelia Fragkou Lightweight Single Sculls: Evangelia Anastasiadou Lightweight Double Sculls: Zoi Fitsiou and Dimitra Kontou I'm surprised we didn't send a men's double sculls after last year we had Kalandaridis/Palaiopanos make Final A at the World Championships. I thought them along with the other three men's boats would be the ones we try to send to Paris. I expect a lot of changes in the women's crews over the next few months Fragkou has won a bunch of U19 and U23 medals in single sculls, double sculls, and pair. Now she is back in the single sculls Anastasiadou won medals last year in single sculls (Euros), lightweight single sculls (World U23 and Euro U23), and then reached the A Final at the World Championships in the lightweight double with Kontou. Now she is in the lightweight single sculls again, when she should be focusing on an Olympic category as it is a pre-Olympic year... Bourmpou, the Kyridou sisters, and Tsamopoulou are all competing in the NCAA Championships this weekend, so I guess they will be joining the national team afterwards. Also, I'm surprised we aren't even attempting to send a women's double sculls here. Natsioula won three gold medals last year in that event (European U23, World U19 with a world record, and European U19), and should've been given a shot at the senior level in my opinion.

I agree, but at least in Greece I see it happen far more in rowing than in other sports. I think because they have to train so much, that they don't have time for anything else, whereas with Greek athletes in other sports, often they have some part-time jobs etc.

It is very sad, we choked at the end of the game. I will not be able to sleep well for several nights due to this...

It's the same issue for Greece, every year we lose a handful of young, talented rowers because as you said there is no way to earn enough. Stefanos Ntouskos was going to retire after Tokyo if he didn't win a medal, the gold medal changed his life financially...

If Olympiacos win, Greece will become the only country to have two teams with more than 3 Euroleague titles

2023 European Rowing U19 Championships Silver: Nikolaos Cholopoulos and Dimitrios Papazoglou (men's double sculls) Sofia Dalidou and Gavriela Lioliou (women's double sculls) Bronze: Efthymia Koukloumperi, Sotiria Michailidi, Christina Papaioannou, and Dimitra Papaioannou (women's four)

Very disappointing day for us, only 5 finals and 3 medals. Makrygiannis messed up his SF and finished 4th. He did win the B Final to finish 7th overall but I expected more from him. Due to his age, he'll be back in 2024 and 2025 so he will still have chances to win medals. Our men's double sculls won their SF as well and seemed like the clear favourites to win gold (not to mention they both won medals last year as well), but only managed silver, so it's a bit disappointing. Our women's double sculls also seemed like the clear favourites to win gold, but they also ended up with silver. Our women's four got bronze which was good as I figured they had a 50% chance for a medal. We got 5th place in both the men's four and women's quadruple sculls. So we ended with 0 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze. I guess we got spoiled last year with so many gold medals so now everything else seems like a failure really dominated this year with many gold medals @phelps Also I think it would've been different for us with Dimitra Kontou, she would've probably won gold in the women's single sculls but is not competing here as the European Championships start in a few days at the senior level and she'll be there, but hopefully she can be at the World U19 Championships this summer and give a boost to our U19 team.

It was similarly bad for the men in Rome. Rune and Ruud had two days off between their QF and SF, and it wasn't because of the rain, but because of the scheduling. Meanwhile Tsitsipas had rain delays in most of his matches all week, had to play several times both day and night sessions on the same day (sometimes it was the same match and sometimes different matches). Just really tiring after a while, to the point where I was relieved he lost in the SF so I can be done with following this tournament and it's poor scheduling (I know the rain can't be controlled but if they see the forecast is clearly not good, they should move the scheduling around to make sure they get the matches in PRIOR to the rain, especially since they have to reschedule anyways as they can't play in heavy rain). Also, the women's doubles final was not streamed at all... I'm not sure which tournament was worse this year, Madrid or Rome?

Solid first day for us. JM1X 16 yo Makrygiannis won his heat JM2- Kostoulas/Koutras very disappointing that they'll be in the B Final. I had higher expectations and was thinking they could win a medal. JM2X Cholopoulos/Papazoglou won their heat with the fastest time of all heats. I'd be surprised if they didn't win gold to be honest. JM4- 2nd in their heat and advanced to Final A. Good chance for a medal. JM4X Heading to the B Final. We won medals at this event last year here and also at the Worlds, but of course with a completely different crew and it shows... JW2X Dalidou/Lioliou won their heat with the fastest time. Dalidou won gold here last year and at the Worlds with a U19 world record so I have high expectations for this crew even though only one of the two rowers is the same from last year. JW4- Our girls won their heat and really should win a medal. JW4X I had high expectations and was a bit surprised that our girls were 2nd in their heat instead of 1st, but hopefully they can still win a medal. I can see all 6 of our crews that are still alive winning medals, and I think in the end we'll end with 3-5 medals.

2023 European Youth Boxing Championships: GOLD: Panagiota Kouzilou (Women's -57 kg) BRONZE: Anna-Maria Trifylli (Women's -48 kg) Danai Zanounlari (Women's -60 kg)

14 yos Anastasia Bouboulidi and Ariadni Mirtsiou cleared 4.00m in the women's pole vault today!

Also I want to ask the people from other countries, how famous are these artists in your countries? For Greece in the 2000s, we almost always sent extremely famous people (Helena Paparizou, Anna Vissi, Sakis Rouvas, Kalomira etc.). In the 2010s, Demy was the only big star but also somewhat Eleftheria Eleftheriou. Then some others were known but not necessarily big stars (Yianna Terzi, Loukas Yiorkas ft. Stereo Mike, Giorgos Alkaios, and Maria-Elena Kyriakou who won the Voice the previous season). I would say the ones who were completely unknown in Greece the last 20 years were Argo (2016), Katerine Duska (2019), Stefania (2020+21), Amanda Tenfjord (2022), and now Victor Vernicos (2023). So if you notice, we transitioned from always sending big stars in the 2000s, to sending some household names and less famous/but still known people in the 2010s, and now we keep sending complete nobodies. Ironically Cyprus used to send the randoms and the B-list Greek singers, and in recent years they have sent some big stars like Eleni Foureira and Tamta, but this year they also sent someone who is unknown in our music industry.

I couldn't even understand what he was saying half the time, and I'm talking about the studio version here. I can't imagine how much more inarticulate he was live... I'm not sure why it was such a rush to send him when he is only 16 and has no experience. We are not San Marino or something to not have other singers. Also I don't know if it is good for someone so young to deal with the criticisms from the public. At least in 2016 the unknown/random group we sent that failed were much older and able to handle criticisms. I feel like this 16 year old kid here was set up for failure and I don't think it's good for his mental health, even when the song came out I saw people writing rude comments to him on his Instagram page. He must be well connected though because no one in Greece heard of him until he was 'selected'

Our third time ever not qualifying When will ERT learn that we need to have a national final? This "internal selection" method is so risky. The first time we did this was 2016 and surprise surprise, that was the first year we didn't qualify for the final. Then in 2017, we had a national final and qualified for the final. Then in 2018, we once again did internal selection and did not qualify (though at least that year we had a good song and the singer was somewhat known within Greece). Since then we have always done internal selection and did okay, but now in 2023 once again we did not qualify... It would also be nice to finally send someone who is actually famous in our country, or at least someone who is actually known in our country. The last few years I don't even know where they find these people when we have so many other options. In the past we used to always send big names and place top 10. I understand this may not be possible but I'm sure there are some washed up Greek artists or one hit wonders who would love to go to Eurovision. I don't mean to be disrespectful to Victor, and I actually liked the song more than last year's entry (which actually finished 8th in the grand final so clearly my personal tastes are not always in our best interests ), but it's really crazy how year after year ERT go against the public's wishes and sent unknown artists to Eurovision and don't even give the viewers a say. But at least in 2021 and 2022 we qualified to the final and placed in the top 10 both years, now in 2023 we didn't even make the final

The European U19 Championships will take place next weekend in France. Once again, no Ireland or the Netherlands... Last year we won 3 gold and 1 silver and finished second overall in the medal count. I have a feeling that we won't do as well this year, especially in number of gold medals. Of our 9 medalists from last year, only 3 are returning this year (and only 1 of them is a gold medalist from last year). We also have Dimitra Kontou who did not compete last year and easily would've won gold in JW1X, but she is not competing this year either as she already is with the senior team training for the European Championships which will take place the following week. I hope to see her at the World U19 Championships this summer and I believe she will go since it will not be so close to another regatta like the scheduling was with the European U19 Championships and the European Championships...

Martha Matoula (WTA number 545) wins 6-1 6-3 over Rosa Vicens Mas (WTA number 185) at the ITF event in Bastad

^And on the same day Pegula lost to Townsend. What a shame that Sakkari's draw has Rybakina in R16 and Swiatek in QF. Would have been nice if she could've been in the bottom half of the draw and had a good shot at making the final... Well there are also others like Muguruza, Kerber, Osaka, Halep...

Swimming (1) Apostolos Christou (men's 100m backstroke)

Also there are usually some surprise results, for example Greece losing to Brazil in 2019.

Okay but Iverson got to play for one season with the GOAT Efthimios Rentzias, who averaged a whole 1.5 ppg during his one season with the 76ers