Makedonas

It's a complicated and controversial situation and even a few days ago when people brought up his death, there were a lot of differing reactions from people. You have to go back about 100 years ago when Greeks were really divided on supporting the monarchy or the democracy.

Seems like only Greeks are dying lately...

2023 Australian Open: Women's Singles Qualifying: Round 1: Despina Papamichail GRE d. (10) Reka Luca Jani HUN 6-1 6-0 Round 1: (18) Marina Bassols Ribera ESP d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE 6-2 6-1 Round 2: Despina Papamichail GRE vs. Olga Danilovic SRB

South Korea's Moon Dae-Sung, who beat Nikolaidis in the final at the 2004 Olympics, traveled to Thessaloniki, Greece to visit Nikolaidis' grave. He told reporters that he had a very strong relationship with Nikolaidis, and that he was sorry that it took him so long to visit his grave. I think this is a really beautiful story and it shows the Olympic spirit. Video here (in English) https://www.gazzetta.gr/tae-kbon-nto/2186421/alexandros-nikolaidis-ston-tafo-toy-o-koreatis-poy-antimetopise-ston-teliko

Η Δαλακα και στο φετινό Survivor. Μάλλον δε θα την ξαναδούμε ως αθλήτρια στίβου...

2023 United Cup - Semifinals: Greece 1 - 4 Italy Martina Trevisan ITA d. Maria Sakkari GRE 6-3 6-7(4) 7-5 Lorenzo Musetti ITA d. Stefanos Sakellaridis GRE 6-1 6-1 Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Matteo Berrettini ITA 4-6 7-6(2) 6-4 Lucia Bronzetti ITA d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE 6-2 6-3 Rosatello/Vavassori ITA d. Grammatikopoulou/P.Tsitsipas GRE 6-3 4-6 10-5

Now we have the nominees for the "Gazzetta Awards" which the most popular Greek sports site conducts every year and the fans get to vote to choose: Men: Giannis Antetokounmpo (basketball) Anastasios Bakasetas (football) Apostolos Christou (swimming) Georgios Kougioumtsidis (wrestling) Antonios Papakonstantinou (rowing) Eleftherios Petrounias (gymnastics) Miltiadis Tentoglou (athletics - long jump) Kostas Tsimikas (football) Stefanos Tsitsipas (tennis) Aleksandar Vezenkov (basketball) Odysseas Vlachodimos (football) Angelos Vlachopoulos (water polo) These nominations are pretty good. I'm surprised Vezenkov was included because he plays for the Bulgarian national team, though he competes for a Greek club team and has Greek citizenship as well so I guess that is why? Although the Alexandri sisters for example would never be considered as Greeks for these types of awards... I thought Ntouskos or Gkolomeev could've been included with their European medals instead of Vezenkov but overall this is a good list. If it were up to me, I would include Ntouskos and exclude Gkolomeev. Women: Evangelia Anastasiadou (rowing) Antigoni Drisbioti (athletics - race walking) Zoi Fitsiou (rowing) Despina Georgiadou (fencing) Theodora Gkountoura (fencing) Anna Korakaki (shooting) Anna Ntountounaki (swimming) Maria Prevolaraki (wrestling) Maria Sakkari (tennis) Theopoula Sarvanaki (taekwondo) Ekaterini Stefanidi (athletics - pole vault) Elina Tzengko (athletics - javelin throw) I disagree with some of these. Gkountoura and Ntountounaki have no business being nominated. Gkountoura had an okay year but Georgiadou did better, Gkountoura failed to reach the podium at the World and European Championships. Ntountounaki did not win medals at the European Championships and did not even make a final at the Worlds. By this logic, judoka Elisavet Teltsidou might as well have been nominated, she at least won a Grand Slam despite no World/European medals this year. Also think Fitsiou is a bit questionable, she won a European silver in a non-Olympic event. Evangelia Platanioti for example won two World Championship medals in solo artistic swimming, perhaps she should've been nominated instead? Olga Papadatou also medaled at the European Championships in boxing but wasn't nominated here. I also think it's crazy that no women from team sports were included but for the men we had 3 footballers, 2 basketball players and one water polo player. Eleftheria Plevritou was MVP of the European Championships where Greece won silver, and she also led Olympiacos to the Euro League and European Super Cup titles, as well as the domestic trophies as well. She definitely should've been nominated. I also wouldn't have been opposed to our young rower Styliani Natsioula making it but I guess having three rowers would've been too much, and none of her success was at the women's level. Still, she set a world junior record and won three gold medals in double sculls (World U19 and European U19 with Dalidou and European U23 with Kontou, would've won gold at World U23 if she was able to compete). I guess her mediocre result at the World Championships prevented her from being nominated but still, she is only 17, maybe it's time to make a category for younger athletes... If it were up to me, I'd include Platanioti and Plevritou and exclude Gkountoura and Ntountounaki, and possibly substitute Papadatou for Fitsiou as well. Team: Christina Bourmpou/Evangelia Fragkou (rowing) Men's National Water Polo Team Women's National U18 Water Polo Team Women's National Water Polo Team Olympiacos Men's Basketball Team Olympiacos Men's Football Team Olympiacos Women's Water Polo Team Panathinaikos Men's Football Team Panathinaikos Men's Volleyball Team Panathinaikos Women's Volleyball Team I'm not sure why we only have 10 nominees here when the other categories have 12 (usually they only have 10 but I guess this year they increased it). Personally I think there are too many club teams. The men's basketball and women's water polo teams for Olympiacos had success in Europe so it makes sense, and even the two football teams due to the popularity of the sport (though our men's national team got no nomination for dominating their Nations League group), but two volleyball teams is a bit much IMO. I'm glad our U18 women's water polo team got recognition for winning silver at the World Championships, but the U16 men's and U16 women's teams also did the same and didn't get nominated. Also if we're including young teams here then why not the junior women's pair (Elisavet Argyraki and Ioanna Asvesta) who won gold at the World and European U19s, or the junior women's double sculls (Sofia Dalidou and Styliani Natsioula) who also won gold at the World and European U19s with a world record time. Lastly, I think our women should've gotten credit for winning silver at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships. If it were up to me, I'd remove the two volleyball teams and Panathinaikos football team (maybe keep two of them and increase the amount of nominees to 12), and add the men's national football team, Dalidou/Natsioula, and the women's race walking team. They also have nominations for coach, disabled athletes, fair play, and best goal but I'm too lazy to write about them.

2023 United Cup - Quarterfinals: Greece 3 - 2 Croatia Donna Vekic CRO d. Despina Papamichail GRE 6-2 6-0 Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Borna Coric CRO 6-0 6-7(4) 7-5 Maria Sakkari GRE d. Petra Martic CRO 6-3 6-3 Borna Gojo CRO d. Stefanos Sakellaridis GRE 6-4 6-2 Sakkari/Tsitsipas GRE d. Martic/Gojo CRO 7-6(6) 6-4

2023 United Cup - Group A: Greece 4 - 1 Belgium Alison van Uytvanck BEL d. Despina Papamichail GRE 7-5 2-6 6-3 Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. David Goffin BEL 6-3 6-2 Maria Sakkari GRE d. Elise Mertens BEL 6-1 7-5 Stefanos Sakellaridis GRE d. Zizou Bergs BEL 5-7 6-1 6-3 Sakkari/Tsitsipas GRE d. Flipkens/Geerts BEL 6-3 6-2

We don't have all of the information yet but there is some here: https://greekcitytimes.com/2023/01/03/vassilis-topalos-european-boxing/

He had just won gold recently at the 2022 European Junior Boxing Championships. He got severely injured a few weeks ago in training and it seems the injuries were life-threatening EDIT-Okay, I got more information now, he was injured at training matches so he went to the bathroom to put water on his face and then he fainted in the bathroom and hit his head on a hard surface.

16 yo boxer Vasileios Topalos died today, he was a member of Greek junior national teams

2023 United Cup - Group A: Greece 4 - 1 Bulgaria Despina Papamichail GRE d. Isabella Shinikova BUL 3-6 6-4 6-1 Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Grigor Dimitrov BUL 4-6 6-2 7-6(4) Maria Sakkari GRE d. Viktoriya Tomova BUL 6-3 6-2 Dimitar Kuzmanov BUL d. Michail Pervolarakis GRE 6-1 6-1 Sakkari/Tsitsipas GRE d. Topalova/Andreev BUL 6-4 6-4

-The tennis season in general. It's great to have two top players from your country, and also we have several young Greek women moving up the rankings so hopefully they continue to do so. And of course to watch players from other countries as well. -FIBA World Cup and Eurobasket Women. I hope our national teams do well. -Euro 2024 qualifying. Greece is in a tough group with France and the Netherlands, but I am curious to see how we will do and also we are guaranteed a spot in the play-offs via Nations League so there is less pressure. -Athletics outdoor season. Mainly the World Championships but also last year we had the National Championships in Thessaloniki and it was a very nice experience, I hope to be able to go in 2023 as well. -World Championships again for water polo. -Rowing season. From May to September there are a lot of regattas and it is always nice to see Greece win a lot of medals, I think this year we won 12 gold medals as well as other silver and bronze. -Hopefully many Olympic quotas for Greece in various different sports.

Why were Krejcikova/Siniakova not in the team category?

No Greeks in any of these lists... It can be the first time since 1964 that Greece doesn't qualify anyone in weightlifting. Such a shame considering how good we were in this sport not too long ago, although it is not surprising as the interest in this sport is very low and other sports have more favourable reputations in our country for various reasons... Anyways we were barely hanging on to this qualification streak as we had only 1 weightlifter in London, Rio, and Tokyo. Iakovidis was in Rio and Tokyo but I don't think he'll be able to make it to Paris, hopefully I'm wrong. Our best chance is 22 yo Sofia Georgopoulou in the women's 59kg: Georgopoulou had 192kg as her best result of 2021 and 204kg in 2022, so hopefully she can keep making progress as she is probably close already. We also have 21 yo Maria Kardara in this same category who lifted 191kg this year (she had 182kg in 2021, 167kg in 2019, 137kg in 2017), so both are improving with each year.

Tentoglou, Drisbioti, men's national water polo team and Pomaski were the winners I'm very happy for Tentoglou as he deserved to win last year and was robbed (in my opinion)

Olympiacos defeated Ethnikos Piraeus 11-4 in the final of the Women's LEN Super Cup. It is no surprise as Ethnikos lost a lot of players from last season, but still good to have an all-Greek final. This is Olympiacos' third women's Super Cup title. They also won in 2015 and 2021. 5th Super Cup title for Greece, now tied with Italy for the most of all countries.