Makedonas

I agree with everything you said. It's crazy that Australia (and many other places) don't allow any exceptions to being vaccinated, even if it is a strict quarantine or constant testing. By the way I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am vaccinated so I'm reminding people of that before they assume I am anti-vaccine when I am clearly not. Also Greece doesn't recognise Kosovo but when they played against us in Athens we let them in, actually all tourists from Kosovo are allowed in the country with their documents/passports even though we do not officially recognise them, and when they played against us it was called "Greece vs Kosovo Football Federation." So yeah, a lot of people have made accommodations as they should. Now I wish Voracova could play too...

It looks like have joined in on the celebrations.

Demonstration outside of the Serbian consulate in Thessaloniki. People showing their support for Djokovic.

https://sportsfeed.gr/i-ellada-chanei-kai-alla-meli-tis-olympiakis-omadas-poy-ginontai-athlitikoi-metanastes/ Ελεος...

Is this real? I can't find any other articles on it.

The new rumour is that she might take part in Survivor which has a big financial reward...in that case we will probably not see her defend her European title, and maybe never see her compete again... She has not posted anything on Instagram in a very long time also. She has really disappeared, and it's crazy that she hasn't even talked to her coach since Tokyo.

Naomi Osaka once again withdrawing in the middle of the tournament. This is becoming a pattern with her. I am sure she will be totally healthy during the Australian Open though...

On the topic of the Australian Open (if we're allowed to talk about this yet ), it looks like we will have the most Greeks ever at a Grand Slam tournament. We had 5 Greeks across all categories at the 2021 US Open, I think that might have been the previous record until now. As long as nobody withdraws, we have 7 Greeks so far and possibly 8 (if Petros Tsitsipas gets another doubles wildcard ). Stefanos Tsitsipas in men's main draw and Theodoros Mitsakos in boys' qualifying, Maria Sakkari in women's main draw, Valentini Grammatikopoulou and Despina Papamichail in women's qualifying, Michaela Laki in girls' main draw, and Dimitra Pavlou in girls' qualifying. At the 2014 US Open we had zero representatives in any category, so it's nice to see how much progress we have made since then. Also interesting to note that Pavlou is Sakkari's first cousin and this will be her first time at a Grand Slam.

Merry Christmas to those Orthodox Christians who celebrate! As a Greek Orthodox we do not celebrate today but on 25 December, same with some others like Bulgarians and Romanians for example, but others such as Serbians and Russians celebrate Christmas today.

Papachristou might be done. Her coach said that she took a break after the Olympics to think about her future and hasn't trained since and hasn't even let him know what her plans are. I wish she would at least compete at the 2022 European Championships as she is the defending champion in the triple jump. She would be 35 in Paris 2024 but already has a child and perhaps wants more children. She also missed the 2012 Olympics and didn't have any good valid jumps in Tokyo so I thought she'd want another Olympic chance since Rio was her only decent Olympic showing. We'll see though, maybe she'll be back in the outdoor season but it looks like she won't be in Belgrade.

I think the Voracova situation is crazy and makes Djokovic look much better now. It shows that Australia was allowing others who followed the same process in, and it was not just "arrogant Djokovic getting special permission because he is famous" as people were saying. Nobody is blameless in this situation, but now Australia looks very bad for originally allowing it and now changing their minds. It's too late for that. You can't give people exemptions and then revoke them. Going forward, they should be more consistent to avoid messy situations such as this.

Who? Do you mean Robert Lewandowski?

I like that this is a category. I wish Greece would do the same. Every year we have either basketball or water polo teams winning. Very rarely will sailing/rowing teams win these awards, usually only if they win Olympic medals and even then they don't always get the award. It would be nice to separate it and add this category because our sailors and rowers often get ignored because of the big team sports.

That's the thing though, if he needed a medical exemption then he did not need the vaccination. It was one or the other, not both. Also while I would have gotten vaccinated in his situation, I can respect that at least he did not fake it. I am sure he could've had the Serbian government make fake papers that looked official to say that he is vaccinated but instead he chose to not lie and instead he is honest.

Also didn't Djokovic help with vaccinations in Belgrade during a tournament there? That he provided vaccinations for those who CHOSE to receive them? I thought I saw something about that. Another thing is that some of these people claim they "follow science" but they only follow some of it. As I have said, I am vaccinated but some of us need to recognise that natural immunity is also real and relevant. We clearly see now that people with the vaccines can still get and spread the virus. I have a family member who is vaccinated that recently got the virus and had bad symptoms. I know that many people around the world also have a similar situation. So is it really true that an unvaccinated person who had the virus in October for example is "a danger to society" but that a person who got vaccinated in March for example is "safe and free"? The recent trend seems to be that the unvaccinated person in this situation would have greater immunity. I don't think we know exactly how long natural immunity lasts for so it might be hard to determine, but maybe governments should really consider natural immunity for a certain period of time as an alternative to vaccination requirements? Obviously it could be difficult if after X amount of months the natural immunity proof (a positive test from a previous month for example) is no longer valid, but it is astonishing that nobody wants to talk about natural immunity. We know that Djokovic had the virus during the summer of 2020, which is too long ago for natural immunity to still be relevant, but is it possible that he had it again last year? Perhaps when he skipped Indian Wells in October?

Is this really true though? They said that they would allow medical exemptions. I don't know yet about the other countries but for Australia, the latest news was that there would be medical exemptions so technically he did not know that he needed to be vaccinated to go there.

I think Djokovic made a mistake by posting about the exemption, as that drew a lot of attention to his situation. Had he just posted "Off to Australia!" then people could be free to make their own conclusions from that and think that maybe he got the vaccine and it would be less suspicious. Instead, he chose to announce his current vaccination status to the world. People are saying there are issues with his visa but also that Tennis Australia reviewed his visa application. So I don't know. I think there is still a lot of information which we do not know now so I don't want to jump to conclusions yet because the situation is still quite unclear in my opinion. I personally like Novak and want to see him play even though it was a bit annoying that he was being so dramatic all along. Other players like Sandgren and Babos at least were more transparent during this process. Also if he does get deported, would that mean he is banned from going back to Australia for a certain period of time? Which would mean we might never see him play at the Australian Open again...

I'm vaccinated and people sometimes tell me I look like Djokovic, plus I used to play tennis, so would you mind if I took his spot instead of you? Thank you for giving me the opportunity to live my dream

I'm glad that he is playing but the "medical exemption" is BS and we all know it. I think it is unfair for players to miss out on the Australian Open due to not getting the vaccine, but I think it is even more unfair to allow some unvaccinated players but not others... It will be interesting to see if the other slams also require it and/or what their countries decide.

Ιστιοπλοΐα, κολύμβηση, κωπηλασία, πυγμαχία, σκοποβολή, στίβος, ταεκβοντο, τενις κτλ: Ας φανταστούμε ότι έγραψα κάτι…πραγματικά δεν έχω όρεξη

Greece's Despina Papamichail qualified for Adelaide beating #151 Jones and #147 Voegele. She's 28 years old but currently at a career-high ranking of 182 and doesn't have many points to defend until July. It would be nice if she can really rise up the rankings the next few months and be a late bloomer. This is the first time she qualified for a WTA main draw (she was a lucky loser the other time she played a main draw so she didn't really "qualify").

Καλή χρονιά σε όλους! Και συνεχίζω… Μπάσκετ: Πρέπει η Εθνική ανδρών να πάρει μετάλλιο στο φετινό Eurobasket. Φτάνει πια. Δεν αντέχω άλλο . Αξίζουμε ένα μετάλλιο μετά από τόσα χρόνια. Μακάρι να τα καταφέρουμε. Χρειαζόμαστε και καλά αποτελέσματα στα προκριματικά του Mundobasket ανδρών αλλά και Eurobasket γυναικών, ώστε να κάνουμε τα πρώτα βήματα για τα ολυμπιακά εισιτήρια. Πιστεύω μπορεί να κάνει σπουδαία πράγματα και η εθνική γυναικών κ20 το 2022. Δεν ξέρω πως θα λειτουργεί το Πανευρωπαϊκό αλλά αν γίνει κανονικά (όχι όπως πέρυσι) θα έχουμε την χρυσή μας γενιά με Μποσγανα, Χατζηλεοντη και Παπαδόπουλου στη διάθεση μας... Στο Euroleague ο Ολυμπιακός είναι από τα φαβορί φέτος. Μακάρι να πάει στο Final Four (έχουμε μερικά χρόνια να δούμε μια ελληνική ομάδα εκεί), και από εκεί είναι όλα πιθανά! Ξιφασκία: Ανυπομονώ να δω τι θα κάνουν οι Γεωργιαδου-Γκουντουρα μετά το θρίαμβο τους στη Γαλλία. Μακάρι να βρουνε τρόπο να αγωνιστούν μαζί και στο ομαδικό (μαζί με την 3η καλύτερη ελληνίδα προφανώς). Αν δεν είχε σταματήσει η Βουγιούκα τόσο νωρίς, θα μπορούσαμε ίσως και ένα μετάλλιο στο ομαδικό στους Ολυμπιακούς! Στο φλερέ θα ήθελα την Χαλδαιου να μπει στο τοπ 100 (αυτή τη στιγμή βρίσκεται στο νο.167). Ας θυμηθούμε ότι είχε πάρει χάλκινο στο Ευρωπαϊκό νεανίδων το 2020. Πάλη: Η Πρεβολαρακη να πάρει μετάλλιο σε μεγάλη διοργάνωση (Παγκόσμιο/Πανευρωπαϊκό), ο Πιλιδης να κερδίσει το Survivor και να υπερασπιστεί τον τίτλο του στο Παγκόσμιο Κ23, ο Κουγιουμτσιδης να συνεχίζει να πάρει μετάλλια στις ηλιακές κατηγορίες (κατέκτησε 3 μετάλλια το 2021), και ο Χοσονοφ να πάρει το χρυσό στο Παγκόσμιο Κ23 (το 2021 είχε πάρει το ασημένιο).

Maria won but it was not pretty

That's too bad that he is injured. Thank you all for your replies. Please excuse my ignorance as I am not very familiar with most winter sports.