Makedonas

Ο Χαραλαμπόπουλος είναι πλέον 27...θυμάμαι στις ηλικιακές κατηγορίες τον είχα για ΝΒΑ. Κρίμα...

They have until the end of the qualification period to get 2 athletes with OQT? This is a problem we might have with the men's 4 x 200 free and women's 4 x 100 medley, if we qualify in these. We currently have just 1 swimmer in each relay with OQT, though some of them are in other relays but I guess that doesn't count...

Well Drakou got 5th, it seems to be our favourite position in Doha, so maybe 4th is for Canada what 5th is for Greece Siskos was 1st overall in the heats with a new NR, then 6th in the semifinal so the goal of reaching a final has been achieved. A medal seems unlikely but it would be nice for him to at least get a new NR in the final. Our women's 4 x 200 relay got 17th place with a not so great time, but it was still a new NR (barely). The girls said they expected more but that it was still a good experience for them.

Georgopoulou 202 kg, just not enough and she not improved at all in the last two years it seems. She was our last hope to send a weightlifter to Paris. Now it is 95% certain that Greek weightlifting will not be represented at the Olympics for the first time since 1956 Weightlifting is our second-best sport in our Olympic history. 5 gold, 5 silver, and 2 bronze between Barcelona and Athens and now we can't even qualify anyone. The sport has major issues but it is still sad to see how far we've fallen...

I'm glad we qualified in the mixed medley relay, and 5th in the final is pretty good for our standards regardless of it being a weak year Great also for Drakou to not only be apart of that team and secure a quota for her 4th Olympics, but also to make the final in the 50m backstroke. She hadn't made a World Championships final since 2015, so to make two (even if one is a relay) this year is nice to see, especially since this will likely be her last World Championships. Looking forward to tomorrow to see how our 18 yo talent Siskos does (men's 200 backstroke), after he was 12th last year, this can be a good chance for a final! Also looking forward to our women's 4x200 freestyle relay. They are really young and I expect a new NR. Two of the girls are 16 and one is 17 (the other is 21), and I'm glad our federation is supporting these girls so much and giving them this chance. I hope this support will continue and that they will continue to improve in the next years. They won't make it to Paris but I think we are really aiming for Los Angeles 2028 with this team (3 of them set our women's NR in this event at the World Junior Championships last year). It will also be good for Greek women's swimming, because Drakou and Ntountounaki aren't getting any younger. They won't be around forever and we need others to step up. I mentioned that Greek swimming is really improving but it's mostly on the men's side...

Well this is very disappointing! We wasted multiple leads and then towards the end of the game we could not take our chances with the exclusions and in the end Hungary equalised. I knew it was over at that point. You can always count on our girls to lose if it is decided by penalties. The last time we won with penalties was in 2018 against Russia at the European Championships. Outside of the European Championships, we have not won since 2015. Since then, we have lost all 5 of our penalty shootouts in World Championships, and 1 in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament as well. I think part of the problem is that we have two good goalkeepers (Diamantopoulou and Stamatopoulou) but neither is really the "main" player on our team, and they both kind of swap with each other. For example, Diamantopoulou played the full game today, but Stamatopoulou came in for the penalties only, after not playing a single second of the game. So of course she didn't save any as she was "cold." But in the quarterfinals, Stamatopoulou played the whole game and Diamantopoulou didn't play at all, yet she gets to play the entire semifinal. I get that we want to use both girls since we have them, and give the other one rest, but we really need one to be the priority keeper. Also it's great to see Ninou living up to her potential. She is 21 yo now, has been always with the senior national team since age 16, little by little she became more of an important player. Now she's been our top scorer for all games here except against France where she had "only" 2 goals. 2 against Spain (tied with E.Plevritou and Xenaki), 4 against China, 4 against Kazakhstan, 5 against Italy, and 4 against Hungary I must add that it is disappointing losing when it's so close, but especially against this Hungarian team which has several naturalised players who are not Hungarian, knowing that without them we would've 99% had the win and be in the final against USA , but I'm proud that we have an authentic team!

Swimming +2 Arkadios Aspougalis (mixed 4 x 100 m medey relay) Theodora Drakou (mixed 4 x 100 m medey relay)

2024 Women's Water Polo World Championship: Quarterfinals: 14 - 12 2024 Men's Water Polo World Championship: Quarterfinals: 10 - 11

Sakkari loses in the second round of Doha to Noskova, 6-3 6-7 5-7. She had a match point on return at 6-3 5-3 and then had 6-3 5-4 30-15 on serve but hit an unforced error followed by two consecutive double faults... She will now exit the top 10 for the first time since joining the top 10 2.5 years ago. However, she will probably be back in after next week as Muchova will be dropping a lot of points. Of course the typical reaction in Greece is that she is "done" and "should retire from tennis." Meanwhile she is 28 yo and even 5 years ago no one expected that she would spend half of the next 5 years in top 10

Nice to see Christou winning bronze in the men's 100 backstroke. Sure it's a weak year, but in 2022 he had the CR in the semifinals and then was a disappointing 5th in the final, so it's nice he finally got his medal Also good for Makrygiannis finishing 4th with another PR! His progress stalled the last few years, but now he seems to be on the right path again

What a collapse from us at the end

Swimming +1 Dimitrios Markos (men's 800m freestyle)

With NR as well

Our 2000/2001 generation of men's swimmers seems pretty great! I don't know enough about swimming to compare to other nations to be honest but we have Papastamos, Markos, Bilas, Englezakis, Makrygiannis, Aspougalis, Thomoglou...I don't want to jinx it but it seems like this can be our swimming golden generation And now he's into the final along with Christou. Also Ntountounaki got 5th in the women's butterfly. Greek swimming has definitely (and quietly) come a long way in the last 20 years, but especially the last 5 or so.

This is now the fifth time in a row we've beaten Italy, all within the last three years Kind of crazy how we have some teams we always lose against in recent years (Netherlands, Spain) but we always beat Italy it seems. I do feel sorry for the Italians if they don't make it to Paris after beating USA at last year's Worlds, it would be really unlucky for them... Also this is the first time since 2011 that we made the semifinals I think Hungary (+France/Slovakia/New Zealand ) is beatable (definitely better than facing USA or Spain), we beat them last month but we'll see, Xenaki being suspended for the semifinal is a blow to us though Myriokefalitaki is back from injury which should help us.

Second year in the league and second year winning the Super Bowl for former national water polo player George Karlaftis

6th for our men's 4 x 100 freestyle relay I don't have statistics in front of me, but this is probably the best any of our relay teams have ever done at the World Championships. And even though this year is a little weaker than others, the boys still would've finished 7th with this time in 2023 Close to the NR (.28 seconds off) but probably the second best time ever.

Anna Ntountounaki finally in a big final (Olympics or World Champs) in an Olympic category after 43678587578345 times going out in the semifinals, usually in 9th place Also good to see our men's 4 x 100 freestyle relay going to Paris, though it would've been a surprise if they didn't qualify to be honest. Hopefully some of our other relays can join them, I'm quite optimistic.

Swimming +1 Andreas Vazaios (men's 4 x 100 m freestyle relay)

Georgiadou was leading Battai 9-6 the moment Gkountoura lost in the quarterfinals. It's like she noticed what was happening on the other piste because she immediately went from 9-6 to 10-13, eventually losing 14-15. This was really a great opportunity for her to close the gap in the ranking, now it really seems like she will miss yet another Olympics. Hopefully she'll be able to keep going until Los Angeles 2028, where she can finally make her Olympic debut at age 37...

With breaking, 3x3 basketball, and other ridiculous 'sports' being added to the Olympics, water polo should be the least of your worries...

Until Tokyo it used to be just 8 teams, so at least it is somewhat better now. To be honest though, other than the one of Italy/Hungary/Canada who will miss out, the only other worthy team is banned Russia. Women's water polo not being developed in Serbia/Croatia/Montenegro really hurts the sport I think, but Croatia has had some decent results in youth categories in recent years so maybe they can become bigger. France also has improved in recent years, but still far away from the other big European teams.

2024 Women's Water Polo World Championship: Group B: 11 - 6 8 - 16 22 - 9 Playoffs: 24 - 5 2024 Men's Water Polo World Championship: Group B: 24 - 6 23 - 4 13 - 12

11th consecutive time that is in the quarterfinals of the World Championships Only and have longer streaks

Artistic Swimming +2 Sofia Malkogeorgou and Evangelia Platanioti (women's duet)