Makedonas

2-1-1 for us, actually our best EYOF ever (though we've won as many as 6 total medals in the past but not this many gold)

I think we'll do even better in the U19 finals. We were second in the medal table at the Europeans in May (we had 3-1-0 and Romania had 3-1-1). Dalidou/Natsioula not winning gold in the women's double would be a huge shock. They won their heat by 7+ seconds, they won their semifinal by 9+ seconds, and even at the Europeans they won the final by 9+ seconds. Gkogkou is clearly the favourite to win gold in the women's single sculls as well. She won her heat by 13+ seconds and won her semifinal by 7+ seconds. She beat everyone else in the final easily already with the exception of the German sculler. They haven't faced off yet but the German has not been winning her races by big margins the way Gkogkou has. It would also be pretty funny if Gkogkou wins the World U19 title, as she placed only third at the National Championships in this event (Natisoula won gold and Kontou won silver). I'm concerned about Argyraki/Asvesta. I'm confident that they'll win a medal, but I feel it may not be gold even though they are also the favourites to win, they have won races by less than one second. As for our men's quadruple sculls, it's really even between , so it's hard to predict but I hope our boys can win a medal. Our team is super young compared to most others so that will be a good sign as the rest of our young men have been quite disappointing.

This table doesn't really do us justice. We only sent 6 crews. The men were mediocre unlike last year where they won two golds (all of those athletes are too old for U23 now). However, our women were amazing. Bourmpou/Fragkou won gold in the pair with a U23 world record (Bourmpou already had the previous record from 2019 with Maria Kyridou). Anastasiadou won gold in the lightweight single sculls with a U23 world record. Although it's not an "Olympic event," having an athlete win a gold in that event, in my opinion, is far more important than winning in a four or quadruple sculls. It's one of the strongest events with many entries, and obviously the goal is to be in the lightweight double sculls at the Olympic level. Our other boat was 16 yo Dimitra Kontou in the women's single sculls who finished in 5th place, in a very strong event. Not only was she the youngest athlete in her boat class, but she was the youngest athlete in any boat from any nation in either gender at the entire World U23 Championships (not including coxswains). She did great and it seems that her and Anastasiadou will try to qualify for Paris together in the lightweight double. I guess we split them up here because Anastasiadou was guaranteed a gold in either event, so we probably put Kontou in the single to see if we could get two medals out of them instead of one.

Probably yes, but I am not sure if they can win medals at this year’s World Championships. A lot of them are very young and we will have a better idea over the next two years as they develop. The Kyridou sisters were also banned from the national team, so they’re out until next year (the reasons are totally ridiculous, only in Elladistan do these things happen…). Bourmpou/Kyridou dominated juniors and U23s together and finished 5th last year in Tokyo as 20 year olds, but it seems like they had a falling out as they no longer follow each other on Instagram (they used to say even when they were winning everything together that they did not get along with each other). There is major drama within the federation and it includes the athletes feuding with each other. It’s too much to explain and I’m sure I only know 5% of it as an outsider. The Kyridou sisters are training hard in the pair for Paris, and Bourmpou showed up at the World U23s this week with Fragkou, also in the pair. So I have no idea who will be our women’s pair in Paris, and if the others will go to the sculling events or the four. Right now Kyridou/Kyridou and Bourmpou/Fragkou would both be great crews, but obviously we can only send one team per boat class. Honestly we could have Anastasiadou/Kontou in LW2X, Kyridou/Kyridou in W2-, Bourmpou/Christodoulidis/Dalidou/Tsamopoulou (or maybe Argyraki? Asvesta? Pergouli?) in W4-, and Fragkou/Natsioula in W2X, all possibly contend for medals in Paris. There are others like Gkogkou and Arabatzi that may be capable as well. A lot will change in the next couple years and I’m sure some will probably quit the sport (look at Asoumanaki for example, who was 4th in Rio as a 19 year old in W2X and quit rowing). Nikolaidou hasn’t competed internationally or nationally since 2019, and she said after Tokyo that she wanted to come back for Paris and was waiting for her injuries to finally heal. However it seems that she is working at a hotel on Santorini nowadays… There might also be some new names emerging. Kontou was barely a thought last year, now suddenly she is our big teen prodigy and we’re talking about her maybe winning a medal in Paris when she’ll be just 18. On the men’s side, it’s not so good after Ntouskos. Hopefully between Papakonstantinou, Stergiakas, Papachristos, Kalandaridis, Palaiopanos we can make some type of competitive crew that can contend for a medal.

With a big new PB of 3.95! Wow! Her PB progression is really solid: 2018-2.90 2019-3.31 2020-3.56 2021-3.70 2022-3.95 With Triantafyllou winning gold at the European U18 Championships a few weeks ago, and now Panagiotou winning gold here, the future of Greek women's pole vaulting seems to be promising again after some others like Kassotaki and Postika totally failed to live up to expectations in recent years.

I had no idea that Hungary and Slovakia had conflicts. I guess you learn something new every day... What an embarrassing result for Olympiacos, 0-4 at home against Maccabi Haifa

First place in the JW2- heats with the best time from both heats, and now Anastasiadou won her semifinal in BLW1X and it seems like the gold is hers to lose at this point

We never take this seriously and always finish embarrassingly low on the medal table, so I'm glad we at least got one medal so far (and gold nonetheless)

We are finally making progress here, with men's water polo, Tentoglou and Despina Georgiadou being added. Still no golds though. Of our Olympic medalists from Tokyo, we still have Ntouskos and Petrounias that didn't have World Championships yet in their sports. As well as others like Anna Korakaki who won two medals in Rio and is ranked number 1 in one event and number 4 in her other event. And in sailing for example, Vasileia Karachaliou is ranked 4th in the Laser Radial (but she probably won't be representing Greece in 2024).

Our boys have been mediocre so far, with the exception of JM4X which won their heat. However, our girls have been absolutely dominant. Anastasiadou won her heat in BLW1X by 10+ seconds, setting a new World best time 16 yo Kontou finished second in her heat (only 3.5 seconds behind Foester) in BW1X to advance to the semifinals. Bourmpou/Fragkou comfortably won their heat in BW2- to advance to the final. Now today, Dalidou/Natsioula finished 1st in their heat in JW2X by over 7 seconds to advance to the semifinals. And Gkogkou won her heat in JW1X by 13+ seconds, and had the best time of all heats by 6 seconds. We still have JW2-, JW4- and JW4X which have not competed yet.

Are you going to the tournament? @Monzanator

Archery: 1-3 Psarra should make it back again for her 7th Olympics, and now with her daughter we may have a chance at the team event. Artistic Swimming: 2-9 We'll definitely qualify the duet. Team might depend on Russia's participation... Athletics: 20-30 I'm too lazy to go into a big analysis on this. Badminton: 0 Basketball: 0-24 Beach Volleyball: 0 Boxing: 2-3 Breaking: 0 Canoeing - Slalom: 0 Canoeing - Sprint: 0 I don't know of anyone, although we should do well at this sport given our coastal areas and also lakes, rivers, etc. Cycling - BMX: 0 Cycling - Mountain Bike: 1 Cycling - Road: 1 Cycling - Track: 1-2 Diving: 0-2 Equestrian: 0-1 Fencing: 1-4 We should definitely qualify in women's sabre, the difference is if we make it in the team event or not. Field Hockey: 0 Football: 0 Golf: 0 Gymnastics - Artistic: 1-3 Surely Petrounias will make it, and possibly one more in each men's and women's I'll say. Gymnastics - Rhythmic: 0-6 2020 was the first time in several decades that we didn't qualify anyone, but we seem to be slowly moving upwards again. Gymnastics - Trampoline: 0 Handball: 0 Judo: 2-3 We had 2 in Tokyo but Ntanatsidis seems to have disappeared. However, Tselidis is back from injury so I think he'll make it this time. Modern Pentathlon: 0 Rowing: 5-18 This one is hard to predict. We had 4 in Tokyo which was very small compared with Rio or London, but it was a very young team and they did really well. We had really good U23 and U19 teams in recent years, so in the next two years we'll get to see how they transition into the senior category. Rugby Sevens: 0 Sailing: 5-10 Hard to predict with all of the new categories. Also there is the drama with Karachaliou (who would be one of our biggest medal hopes across all sports) possibly representing Portugal instead. Shooting: 3-7 We only had 2 in Tokyo, Korakaki and one in men's skeet. I think the young Katzouraki will also qualify in women's skeet. Plus we have good chances for another in men's skeet, Korakaki's brother and Christina Moschi in the pistol events, and maybe Chatzitsakiroglou in men's trap. Skateboarding: 0 Sport Climbing: 0 Surfing: 0 Swimming: 15-20 We had 12 in Tokyo, but it was a pretty young team and everyone should be back plus some other young swimmers. Table Tennis: 1-2 Gionis should make it again and possibly the young Sgouropoulos. Taekwondo: 1-3 We had just 19 yo Tzeli in Tokyo. Telikostoglou was a shock non qualifier after winning silver at the 2019 Worlds. Chamalidis is also decent. I think we'll have some representation in Paris. Tennis: 2-3 Tsitsipas and Sakkari again. I would like to see someone else make it but I'm not sure how realistic it is. We have three other guys moving up a lot in the doubles rankings, and a couple of other girls in top 200 but someone will need to make big improvements to make it to Paris...I'll be optimistic and say someone else might get in though. Triathlon: 0 Volleyball: 0 Water Polo: 12-24 Our men will make it as always, and I think our women will finally make it back (I say it every time but it's probably more likely now if no Russia as well) Weightlifting: 1-2 Just like London, Rio, and Tokyo, I think we'll do the bare minimum to keep our OG qualification streak alive Wrestling: 3-4 We had 2 in Tokyo, I think both will make it again. Since then we also had 20 yo Kougioumtsidis win gold at the European Championships in the senior's category, so I think he will make it too. Total Sports: 24 Optimistic Total Athletes: 185 Realistic Total Athletes: 112 Pessimistic Total Athletes: 80

I haven't posted in this topic since the World Championships started, so just some recap: 1. Tentoglou winning silver was a bit strange, we got so used to him winning gold all the time He had the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th best jumps of the competition, but in the end even he said "it would be a disgrace to win gold with only 8.32m" He also would've held all 5 (Olympic, World outdoor and indoor, European outdoor and indoor) titles at once, but he will have another chance next year to do this hopefully! 2. 38 yo Drisbioti finishing 4th in 35km is really amazing. She quit athletics from a young age to go to university, then came back in her late 20s, made the Rio Olympics, then finished top 8 in Tokyo and now is going for Paris too. The Hellenic Olympic Committee didn't even sponsor her after her 8th place finish in Tokyo because she is "too old," so she works full-time at her family's tavern and trains after midnight when the tavern closes. Also she broke her national record by almost 6 minutes, although as we know it's a new event so probably not as impressive as it sounds. 3. Stefanidi 5th in women's pole vault was disappointing but not surprising. I mean I thought it would've been worse to be honest. Although 4.70 was a SB for her, hopefully she can medal at the European Championships (where she is two-time defending champion), but she has really been a shadow of her former self since the pandemic. Also we had a streak of 3 consecutive medals in the women's pole vault at the World Championships (Kyriakopoulou bronze 2015, Stefanidi gold 2017, Stefanidi bronze 2019), so now that has come to an end as well 4. Frantzeskakis finishing 9th in the men's hammer was very respectable considering his young age. Hopefully the first of many big finals for him. 5. Very disappointing that Tzengko (women's javelin) missed out on the final as she was one of the best in the world this year, but still she is only 19 so hopefully she can be more consistent in the future. Stamatia Scarvelis (women's hammer) missing the final was a big shock, as she only threw 67.20 which was by far her worst of the year, meanwhile she was over 70m in 6 different competitions this year. 6. Disappointing but not surprising that Karalis, Karydi, Kyriakopoulou and Polak missed out on their finals. All have been in horrible form. Kyriakopoulou is 36 so I guess at this point her goal is to make it to Paris 2024 and then retire. The others had some injury problems but are younger (especially Karalis and Karydi) so I expect more from them. 7. Lastly, bittersweet that Tatiana Gusin couldn't make the final of the women's high jump. She came so close and that would've been a pleasant surprise.

Yes, I never expected this after Vougiouka retired in 2016! She is still only 36, I really wish she would come back to help us qualify for Paris 2024. She was ranked number 4. I don't know if she can get that high again but with proper training there is no reason why she can't be top 50, top 30.... After Georgiadou and Gkountoura, our third fencer in women's sabre is ranked 168...

Georgiadou is number 3 in the new rankings, and Gkountoura is number 6

Considering we won gold in JW1X, JW2- and JW2X at the recent European Junior Championships, and we are sending the same crews in those boats, I expect medals here in all of those. Not sure about our JM4X who won silver, but that's another good chance for a medal. Hopefully we can end with 4-5 medals in the U19s. For the U23s, I am disappointed (but not surprised) by how small our team is. Anastasiadou won silver in LW1X last year in her first year as a U23, she should definitely win another medal this year and hopefully gold (the Italian girl who beat her last year is too old now). Boumpou/Fragkou is an interesting combination for the women's pair, as Fragkou has never been in a sweep event but both have won tons of medals in the past so I guess they'll automatically be amongst the favourites to win. Not sure what to expect from 16 yo Kontou in W1X. I can't see her beating the likes of Foester and Janzen, but maybe she can surprise and win a bronze or something? She really should be in U19s instead. We have decent teams in LM2X, M2- and M2X and I think they all should make A Finals but I'm not sure about medals... We have many people who belong to the U23 category that have won medals in the past who were not selected which is a bit disappointing because we could be winning more medals. Maria Kyridou was suspended from the national team so I understand she isn't here (which is totally ridiculous because she did nothing wrong), but others like Angeliki Arabatzi (who won bronze here last year in W2X in her first season as U23) was not selected even though she has a history in scull, sweep, and lightweight events and really could've been in any boat. I also think if U23s and U19s weren't at the same time, some others like Gkogkou and Natsioula would've competed in both instead of just U19s.

The World U23 Championships begin 25/7 in Varese, Italy. Entries here: https://worldrowing.com/event/2022-world-rowing-under-23-championships The World U19 Championships begin 27/7, also in Varese. Entries here: https://worldrowing.com/event/2022-world-rowing-under-19-championships

Μπράβο Δέσποινα

Georgiadou continues her incredible improvement, wow! At 31 years old she is having the best season of her career. She never made the top 20 in her career, and now this year she is already number 4 (and that's not including her bronze medal here). Also she becomes the second Greek fencer to win a World Championships medal, after Theodora Gkountoura (who got 5th place here) also did so in the same event at the last World Championships, where she became the first. It's pretty cool to see us doing well in the women's sabre. I just wish the Olympic qualification system was more favourable, but who knows, maybe we can keep improving and qualify in the team event?!

Ποτε ήταν η τελευταία φορά που είχαμε δυνατή ομάδα στις ηλικιακές κατηγορίες; Το 2017;

@George_DIn 2015 our U18 boys won gold in Division A (Papagiannis/Charalampopoulos era) and then the following year in U20 they had to play in Division B even though they surely would've won a medal in Division A (which they did in 2017 of course)

WTA 250 Budapest First round qualifying: (8) Despina Papamichail GRE d. (WC) Amarissa Kiara Toth HUN 5-7 6-2 1-0 ret. Second round qualifying: (8) Despina Papamichail GRE d. (PR) Varvara Flink RUS 7-6(4) 6-3 First round: (Q) Despina Papamichail GRE d. Dalma Galfi HUN 7-6(4) 6-3 Second round: (9) Anna Bondar HUN d. (Q) Despina Papamichail GRE 6-2 6-3

Yes, unless you count WTA 125 tournaments. She only played in a few main draws before this, maybe 3 or 4. She always lost R1 though. I think this was her first top 100 win ever. She almost beat Kontaveit in 2020 in Fed Cup (I think she was up a set and a break). She was actually a top 50 junior and was hyped more than Sakkari for example. At age 18 she was already ranked 350 (which is good especially for a player from Greece since she doesn't receive wildcards like players from other countries). Then her progress stopped. I read some recent interviews where she said her family knew nothing about tennis and they made a lot of mistakes in managing her career (unlike Sakkari and Tsitsipas who had parents who were involved in the sport, I know Grammatikopoulou has said similar things that her parents know nothing about tennis and that they made poor decisions too, and obviously the Greek tennis federation is not strong like Australia or USA), also her style of play is ultra-defensive and some coaches abroad tried to change her to make her more aggressive and then her results started going downhill once she tried to make these changes. She didn't name specific coaches but I know she was at Juan Carlos Ferrero's academy for some years and her results were bad during that time so one can draw conclusions... It seems that now she has finally embraced her defensive style of play and it seems to be paying off, as she is getting much better results the last 2-3 years and finally moving into the top 300, then top 200, then top 150 (even though it was only for a week or two) and who knows, maybe even top 100 soon. Also it looks like her brother coaches her now, after years of spending money on Spanish and Italian coaches instead. Also it's pretty cool that Papamichail and Grammatikopoulou get to represent our country in Grand Slams as they are from Preveza and Kilkis. These are small cities which if you knew them, would not expect anyone from there to make it as a professional tennis player, especially since it's not like Greece is some tennis powerhouse.

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