Makedonas

New U19 world record in indoor rowing from Greece's Dimitra-Eleni Kontou. She recorded a time of 7:04.09 last weekend at the National Championships in Thessaloniki, which is a world record in the lightweight category. She is 17 yo so she has a chance to improve this again next year. Greece's also has the U19 world indoor record from Sofia Asoumanaki from 2015 in the open category. So we have both U19 women's world records - open and lightweight

Ένα σπουδαίο Παγκόσμιο ρεκόρ ανέδειξε ο έλεγχος των χρόνων των νικητών του 1ου Πανελληνίου πρωταθλήματος κλειστής Κωπηλασίας της Θεσσαλονίκης με τις κορυφαίες επιδόσεις στον κόσμο που πλέον καταχωρεί η Διεθνής Ομοσπονδία Κωπηλασίας. Το πέτυχε στην ελαφρά κατηγορία η Μιλένα Κοντού του ΝΟ Μυτιλήνης στο αγώνισμα των 2000μ. ηλικιακής κατηγορίας 17-18 ετών τερματίζοντας το εργόμετρό της σε χρόνο 7:04.09. Ένας χρόνος που καταρρίπτει το προηγούμενο ρεκόρ που άντεχε από το μακρινό 2013 , εδώ και 9 χρόνια όταν η τότε 18χρονη Αμερικανίδα Κριστίν Καβάλο είχε σημειώσει χρόνο 7:05.07. Το Παγκόσμιο ρεκόρ της Μιλένας Κοντού είναι το δεύτερο που κατέχει η Ελλάδα μετά από εκείνο που κατέχει από το 2016 η Σοφία Ασουμανάκη και πέτυχε στον Πανελλήνιο αγώνα στου Ρέντη και μάλιστα είναι στην ίδια κατηγορία 17-18 ετών αλλά στη βαριά. Κάτι που σημαίνει ότι η χώρα μας είναι πλέον κυρίαρχη στην συγκεκριμένη κατηγορία των γυναικών αφού κατέχει τα δυο παγκόσμια στο ελαφρύ και το βαρύ αγώνισμα. Αξίζει να σημειωθεί ότι η Μιλένα Κοντού βρέθηκε στη Θεσσαλονίκη μαζί με το κλιμάκιο της Εθνικής ομάδας που προετοιμάζεται στο Σχοινιά και θα παραμείνει ως τις 18 Δεκεμβρίου και κατάφερε να κάνει μια κορυφαία επίδοση παρά την προπονητική επιβάρυνση του κοινοβίου. Η Μιλένα Κοντού αναδείχθηκε το 2022 πρωταθλήτρια Ευρώπης στην κατηγορία Κ23 στο διπλό μαζί με την Στέλλα Νάτσιουλα , ήταν 5η στο Παγκόσμιο πρωτάθλημα της ίδιας κατηγορίας στο σκιφ ενώ μαζί με την Ευαγγελία Αναστασιάδου πήρε μέρος στον τελικό του διπλού στο Παγκόσμιο Ανδρών-Γυναικών ενώ ήταν και 5ες στο Παγκόσμιο Κύπελλο στο Βελιγράδι. Κι όλα αυτά μια αθλήτρια που μόλις τον περασμένο Σεπτέμβριο (23/9/05) έκλεισε τα 17. Συγχαρητήρια Μιλένα.

2022 Greek shortlists from our "journalists": Men: Giannis Antetokounmpo (basketball) Eleftherios Petrounias (gymnastics) Miltiadis Tentoglou (athletics - long jump) Women: Antigoni Drisbioti (athletics - race walking) Anna Korakaki (shooting) Elina Tzengko (athletics - javelin throw) Team: Men's National Water Polo Team Women's National Water Polo Team Olympiacos Women's Water Polo Team Coach: Napoleon Kefalopoulos (athletics- Drisbioti) Giorgos Pomaski (athletics - Tentoglou) Theodoros Vlachos (water polo - men's national team) The winners will be announced on 20 December. We have the rankings for everyone outside the top 3. Some of these results are ridiculous: -In the men's category, swimmer Andreas Vazaios finished 5th. He won two gold and two silver medals at the Mediterranean Games. He did not compete at the World Championships, and his best result at the European Championships was 6th in the men's 200 IM. Yet somehow he finished in 5th place in the voting, ahead of Stefanos Tsitsipas (6th), Stefanos Ntouskos (8th), Kostas Tsimikas (11th - won the Champions League with Liverpool even if he didn't always play), as well as others. -Wrestler Georgios Kougioumtsidis won gold at both the European senior and European U23 Championships this year and is ranked number 5 in his category. He did not get any votes even though a total of 35 men's athletes did. -In the women's category, fencer Despina Georgiadou is ranked 3 in the world in the women's sabre and won bronze at the World Championships. She was number 32 in the voting results for women. Rower Zoi Fitsiou who won silver at the European Championships also did not get selected. -Swimmer Anna Ntountounaki finished 6th for women. She won one gold and two silvers at the Mediterranean Games. Her best result at the World Championships was 9th and 5th at the European Championships. Yet somehow she finished above the likes of artistic swimmer Evangelia Platanioti (two medals at World Aquatics Championships), rower Evangelia Anastasiadou (silver at European championships and gold at World U23, also silver at European U23), wrestler Maria Prevolaraki (ranked 2 in the world, won silver at the European Championships and bronze at World Championships), water polo player Eleftheria Plevritou (MVP at European Championships where Greece won silver, also led Olympiacos to the Euro League title), taekwondo's Theopoula Sarvanaki (silver at World Championships), and also Georgiadou and Fitsiou as mentioned. None of this makes sense. It makes you wonder who is voting and what agendas they have. It seems like the swimmers are extremely overrated... Georgiadou and Kougioumtsidis got robbed the most IMO. Georgiadou I thought might even be top 3 and instead they put her at 32? With people like Valentini Grammatikopoulou above her? Come on, this is a joke.

Despina had a 6-1 lead and collapsed afterwards

Despina Georgiadou into another semifinal!

ATP Rankings - Top 5 Singles: 4. Stefanos Tsitsipas 469. Michail Pervolarakis 887. Stefanos Sakellaridis 954. Alexandros Skorilas 976. Markos Kalovelonis ATP Rankings - Top 5 Doubles: 73. Stefanos Tsitsipas 148. Petros Tsitsipas 177. Michail Pervolarakis 223. Markos Kalovelonis 655. Alexandros Skorilas WTA Rankings - Top 5 Singles: 6. Maria Sakkari 160. Despina Papamichail 197. Valentini Grammatikopoulou 311. Sapfo Sakellaridi 556. Martha Matoula WTA Rankings - Top 5 Doubles: 154. Valentini Grammatikopoulou 211. Despina Papamichail 226. Sapfo Sakellaridi 455. Eleni Christofi 498. Maria Sakkari

Η Πρεβολαράκη είναι στο Νο.2 της παγκόσμιας κατάταξης της κατηγορίας των 53 κιλών Επίσης ο Κουγιουμτσίδης βρίσκεται στο Νο.5 των 79 κιλών

2022 European Junior Boxing Championships: GOLD: Emmanouil Fotiadis (Men's -63 kg) Vasileios Topalos (Men's -60 kg) Anna-Maria Trifylli (Women's -46 kg) SILVER: Panagiota Kouzilou (Women's -57 kg) BRONZE: Maria-Efstathia Dasionaki (Women's -63 kg) Maria Georgopoulou (Women's -48 kg)

Η Γεωργιάδου βρίσκεται στο νο.3 στην παγκόσμια κατατάξη, και η Γκουντούρα βρίσκεται στο νο.5

Greek National Team Medals - 2021: Silver - Olympics (Men) Silver - U17 European Championships (Men) Silver - U17 European Championships (Women) Silver - U20 World Championships (Women) Bronze - World League (Men) Bronze - U15 European Championships (Men) Greek National Team Medals - 2022: Silver - European Championships (Women) Silver - U18 World Championships (Women) Silver - U16 World Championships (Men) Silver - U16 World Championships (Women) Bronze - World Championships (Men) Bronze - U19 European Championships (Women) Εύχομαι το 2023 να πάρουμε επιτέλους ένα χρυσό μετάλλιο...

Definitely not looked at as positively as it was at the time, but still one of the most remembered moments. Same with Halkia. Everyone in Greece still knows those names. No one in Greece knows who Emilia Tsoulfa is, for example (gold medalist in sailing in 2004, but she barely got media attention because she wasn't in an "exciting" event).

These are not necessarily my favourite moments, but what I think were most remembered in my country: 1. Hosting the 2004 Olympics - everything about it! 2. Pyrros Dimas winning bronze at home at the 2004 Olympics, after he won gold in 1992, 1996, and 2000. Although he could not win the gold again, this medal had more sentimental value than the golds he won, and also it was the last competition of his career. 3. Konstantinos Kenteris gold in the 200m at the 2000 Olympics. This is something everyone remembers. 4. Paraskevi Patoulidou gold in 100m hurdles at the 1992 Olympics. First Greek woman to win an Olympic medal, and she became very famous for her slogan "For Greece, dammit!" 5. Fani Halkia gold in the 400m hurdles at the 2004 Olympics. Every Greek remembers where they were that night. As you can see the sprint/hurdles gold medals got so much more attention than gold medals in sailing, gymnastics, field events, etc.

1. Miltiadis Tentoglou (athletics - men's long jump) I think this is the most obvious choice for us, he won gold in Tokyo and seems to be the overwhelming favourite to win gold in Paris despite only winning silver at the 2022 World Championships (although he did win gold at the 2022 World Indoor Championships). 2. Eleftherios Petrounias (gymnastics - men's rings) He won gold in Rio and bronze in Tokyo. He seems to be back on track this year after dealing with injuries for a couple years. He won gold at the European Championships. He didn't compete at the World Championships, but his score at the European Championships would've been enough for gold at the World Championships. 3. Elina Tzengko (athletics - women's javelin throw) She won gold at the European Championships this year as a 19 year old with 65.81m. She has already established herself as a contender for gold in Paris, and since she is so young she will likely improve even more over the next two years. 4. Men's National Team (water polo) We won silver in Tokyo with a young team. In 2022 we had some injuries but still managed to win bronze at the World Championships. I think we will do better at the 2023 World Championships with a full, healthy team hopefully. 5. Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas (tennis - mixed doubles) This might sound surprising but I think they will do better now than they did in Tokyo. In Tokyo, Tsitsipas was injured and they lost in the quarterfinals to Australia. Sakkari has also improved a lot since Tokyo and became a top player. Having the Olympics on clay will also benefit them as they play better on that surface, especially Tsitsipas. Also he is a good doubles player with good volleys, and Maria is not but she has a good serve which is important for women to have in mixed doubles. I didn't include our other Olympic gold medalists. Anna Korakaki would probably be number 6, but shooting is too random for us to expect a gold from her. Stefanos Ntouskos and Ekaterini Stefanidi I think can win medals in Paris but I don't think gold.

Most of us don't even know the full anthem, just the first part

Congratulations to our French friends for winning the Totallympics Derby. Sorry to our Polish friends.

We are only sending three swimmers: Apostolos Christou, Kristian Gkolomeev, and Andreas Vazaios.

No, I do not. Perhaps they can aim to make a 24 team Euros but even that will be difficult for them.

For us we have only made the World Cup three times in our history, so just being there is a big achievement although our fans had very high (and sometimes unrealistic) expectations since Euro 2004 so anything else was seen as a disappointment. We also have a recency bias of making the World Cup, whereas prior to 2010 we only ever qualified once. In 2016 I was obviously upset that Greece didn't qualify, but thought it would be nice for once to watch the tournament without stress. However, after a while I feel left out Our national team has been in shambles since 2014, we had many players doing well for top European clubs but either not playing for the national team or playing a lot worse for the national team, and a lot of drama with coaches etc. We just won our Nations League group, so hopefully we are on the right track again.

There was another window last week, no one cares? Our girls had an easy win at home against Estonia by 25 points. Then we beat Great Britain by 7 at home (it was a very close game until the final minutes). 38 yo Evdokia Stamati was the unlikely hero with two late 3 pointers. We basically played the same 6-7 players for the whole game. We lack bench depth but we are strong in every position, and with our NCAA girls we will have more bench depth at Eurobasket. We are now 4-0 and still on track to make Paris 2024. Nikolopoulou for some reason was not called up which is weird, I wonder if she is done with the national team, she is only 31 yo so I hope not. I was critical of her in the past because I didn't think she should've been playing so much, but I still think she should be on the roster on the bench. Spyridopoulou was not called up either, she's now 34 yo but I think she is still useful (although her club form seems to have regressed, still she is experienced). I mean Sotiriou and Stamati are both 38 yo and still playing... I would like our Eurobasket team to look like this. Alternates in parenthesis because I'm sure there will be injuries/absences: G: Stamolamprou, Pavlopoulou, Nikolopoulou, Tsineke, Stamati, Krimili (Vintsilaiou, Alexandri) F: Christinaki, Bosgana, Sotiriou, Spyridopoulou (Chatzileonti, Karlafti) C: Fasoula, Spanou (Papadopoulou)

I am flattered that you included Greece We definitely could make it. Tsimikas (Liverpool) and Vlachodimos (Benfica) are elite in my opinion. I think we need another 2-3 players to be at that level, and Chatzidiakos (AZ Alkmaar), Mavropanos (Vfb Stuttgart), and Pavlidis (AZ Alkmaar) all seem to be heading in that direction to play for big European clubs, all are having very good seasons and seem to be taking their games to the next level. And of course I still have faith in Retsos if he can finally stay healthy, as well as some of our veteran players who are solid like Bakasetas, Fortounis, Pelkas... Strikers Fountas and Giakoumakis are streaky but when in form they know how to find the back of the net very often.

Denmark and Portugal each with two teams?

He was provoking the entire game, let's not act like he is innocent. It's funny him and Shaqiri are such big Albanian patriots, yet they choose to be in the national team of Switzerland and not Albania...