Makedonas

Congratulations to my Polish friends here! @Monzanator @rafalgorka @rybak @Adriano I liked Poland in 2018 and was disappointed, hopefully this time you can do better Also I meant to say a few days ago, congratulations to my Canadian friends as well @NearPup @intoronto @JoshMartini007

I believe the official name under the Skopje 2014 project for that statue was "Warrior on a Horse" Former Greece manager Fernando Santos eliminates Greece's two main rival countries back-to-back to qualify for the World Cup

Big surprise, it has been all over the sports news in Greece since yesterday, basketball player Konstantinos Mitoglou of Armani Milano tested positive. https://basketnews.com/news-169083-dinos-mitoglou-tests-positive-in-anti-doping-control.html

They both lost in the first round...

The Greek Aquatics Federation requested that the swimming competition at the Mediterranean Games be pushed back a week in order to give swimmers the time to compete in both the World Championships and the Mediterranean Games. This request has now been granted, so the swimming will be from 1-5 July instead of 26-30 June (swimming at the World Championships will be from 18-25 June).

Thanks for this analysis, I really appreciate it. I honestly didn't even know who Khosonov won until he won silver last year at the World U23s. His name obviously isn't Greek so I'm curious about him. We aren't the type of country that likes to naturalize athletes either so he must live in Greece or have some connections. I was reading about Kougioumtsidis, apparently he his uncle was a former wrestler who competed in multiple World Championships for Greece. Also we are not sure what will happen with Pilidis, he said he wants to win a medal at the 2024 Olympics (he's been in the media a lot now ever since his appearance on Survivor), but he also has a very bad relationship with the federation (he said on the show that he was asked once to fix a European final and that caused controversy). He also said that his mother had to sell all of her jewelry to afford to send him to competitions. Honestly I haven't kept up with the story because there have been many interviews about this drama and I haven't read/listened to them yet. Incredible, only 21 years old and already European champion This is the first gold medal ever for Greece in men's freestyle wrestling at the European Championships, and our first men's wrestling medal at the European Championships since 2008! Maria Prevolaraki won 5 European medals since then, but of course that's women's wrestling. It's exciting to see Greece start doing well in sports like wrestling where we don't normally have much success. Kougioumtsidis also has a younger brother so hopefully he is good as well

They built so many statues in that country in recent years, they might not have any space for more

Yeah it's great, with Pilidis, Kougioumtsidis and Khosonov, Greek wrestling could have a nice future

Anna Korakaki had to withdraw because she tested positive for Covid

In 2018 Greece only lost two games out of 12 total (including group stage and playoffs). We lost one to Belgium (draw the other time we played them) and one to Croatia (draw the other time we played them). As a result, we did not qualify. Mind you we had just made the World Cup in 2010 and 2014 before then. Then we only had 2 losses and they were to the second and third placed teams at the Finals. I'm not saying we deserved to qualify or anything, but that is an incredibly difficult path especially for a team that made the two previous World Cup Finals... Only 3 will be European though, right? I know you didn't mean it, but honestly this is a bit much. It's easy for people who are not affected to say "Greeks are too sensitive" but when a neighbouring country usurps history to make territorial claims on my homeland, with maps of parts of our country annexed to their country in public school classrooms, and printing currency with photos of Thessaloniki on it, then yes, I'm going to be annoyed...

Pilidis is not going to the European Championships. I guess he is still not ready after taking off time to compete on Survivor and picking up an injury there as well.

Obviously her surname is Albanian but her first name is Greek. Do you know anything about her origins?

Obviously not anywhere near as impressive as some others but 17 year old Dimitra Pavlou (WTA 1278) beat Elena-Teodora Cadar (WTA 621, former 346) 7-5 1-6 6-2 in the first round of ITF Sharm El Sheikh. Cadar won the tournament there last week and this is the highest opponent Pavlou has ever beaten. Pavlou is Maria Sakkari's first cousin, so if she can rise up the rankings the next few years I think her cousin will "help" her with wildcards and playing doubles together etc. She already started sharing a fitness trainer with Maria, so it would be cool if she could keep improving over the next ~10 years just like her cousin did.

For some reason I think we have not seen the last of Barty, she already retired once before, I think she might make a comeback for Brisbane 2032 even if just for doubles or something.

Just when you think women's tennis couldn't get any more unpredictable, world number one Barty retires out of the blue

@rybak We have been discussing which song to pick for Greece, and @Ted has been involved in the process so I think he is going to join. Also I hope we will have our song on Friday 25/3, which is Greece's Independence Day

Disappointing loss but Iga was expected to win anyways. Congratulations to our Polish friends Both girls now enter the top 3!

With Tentoglou's gold medal, Greece has won at least one medal in athletics at every Olympics/World Champs/European Champs since the 2013 World Championships Very nice because we rarely won anything after Athens 2004 until then, with a few exceptions here and there.

Congratulations my friend @Belle

Thank you, happy to join our lovely neighbours Yes, but also it seems to be a habit for Maria. She was 0-5 in ITF finals until she finally won one. Then she was 0-7 in Grand Slam third round matches until she finally won one. Then she had a very poor record in semifinals but now she won two of her last three. So hopefully she can slowly start to break all of these trends as she has done before She was 0-4 in WTA 1000 semifinals, but Wuhan 2017 and Rome 2019 she came from the qualifying, it was a big surprise just to make the semifinals, no one expected her to win those. Then Miami 2021 she was an underdog and lost 7-6 in the third, and then Doha 2022 lost to Swiatek. So this match against Badosa was definitely her best chance to finally make a big final (of course last year she also lost in the semifinals of two majors and also WTA Finals). As for Stefanos, he did win the ATP Finals and a Masters 1000 title already, though I agree he could do better in the later stages of tournaments. He has made 5 GS semifinals but only one final for example, although he always lost to good players (Medvedev 2x, Nadal, Djokovic) so at least he isn't wasting easy draws.

Georgiadou has improved so much Now she's in the top 10 and Greek no. 1, as Gkountoura is ranked 11

Benfica vs. Liverpool means that a team with a Greek player is guaranteed to make the semifinals

ΤΕΝΤΟΓΛΟΥ ΣΑΚΚΑΡΗ

Disappointing women's pole vault final. I like Morris and am happy for her, but it really was a wasted opportunity for our girls. Stefanidi has gold everywhere EXCEPT World Indoors. Kyriakopoulou has medals everywhere EXCEPT Olympics (unrealistic) and World Indoors. This could've been a chance for them if they didn't skip the indoor season. Also Polak maybe could've won a medal if she had her 2020/2021 indoor form.

Yes, I watched the full match. So proud of Maria. It will be a tough one against Iga, it's the fifth time they've played each other in the last 10 months. Winner will be ranked number 2, loser will be ranked number 3. Either way, both girls will reach new career-high rankings Also not many countries can say that they've had men and women reach the top 3, now Greece can join that exclusive list. Who would've ever thought this 5-6 years ago even?!