Makedonas

Well I got 2/3

Well to be honest I thought we had to beat Hungary to win a medal, and that if we lost to you then we would have finished 4th. But now that we are in the final as the underdog I think we have a chance and there's no pressure on us. We will see...

Greek water polo player Stylianos Argyropoulos celebrated his 25th birthday on 2 August, when Greece beat USA 14-5

I am so proud of this team. Thank you to all of the kind Hungarians on here who are congratulating us and wishing us luck for the final. We appreciate it and we hope that Hungary doesn't get 4th place in both men's and women's. I will cheer for your teams. This means so much for us honestly. Water polo really isn't a big sport in Greece to be honest, just in a few coastal towns outside Athens and a couple of islands the sport is popular, and in the rest of the country no one really plays it. But this is a big result for us and people are getting excited about water polo throughout the country (it also helps that this is the only event for Greece left in the Olympics after the women's race walk which will end within the next two hours). In our 16th Olympic appearance in men's water polo we finally got a medal. Those of us who follow our national team have been waiting many years for this and we have been disappointed many times but eventually we finally did it. I know this might be a surprise for some people (and to be honest even we are surprised because we expected to be disappointed again), but our team really deserves it. People might not be used to seeing our team win medals and do well (though we had a few good runs in 2004-2005 and 2015-2017), but on paper we should be achieving such results. We have many good, talented players and it never made sense how our national team just couldn't achieve these big results with the players we have. Especially since our club teams typically do very well and also our national team players who play for other European clubs outside Greece. Now we get the chance to go for gold! It will be very difficult but we definitely have a shot. No Greek team in any team sport has ever won gold at the Olympics, so this will be really special.

We are struggling so much on offense and so many of our key players with fouls and exclusions

Still sad that this was the last 50km race. I wish we could get rid of the mixed relays and surfing and sport climbing, skateboarding, 3x3 basketball and other ridiculous events that have no business in the Olympics

No surprise Papamichail is at the very bottom. Not that he was going to be close to a medal anyways, but he had to do a 10 day quarantine because someone near him on the plane tested positive so he was unable to properly train for this the last two weeks.

As our girls will not be competing due to multiple positive tests for COVID-19, I wanted to post this to give them some recognition. I hope some of you take the time to watch their routine. This was the first time that we qualified in the team event since 2004 (where we only qualified as host nation). Our girls worked very hard especially over the last two years to try to qualify. We also have a very young team. 6 of the girls are still teenagers. We have two 19 year olds (Kariori and Vasilopoulou), two 18 year olds (Karamesiou and Misikevych), one 17 year old (Fragkaki), and one 16 year old (Gialama). This gives me some hope that maybe we can make it back to the Olympics in the future, although it will be tough as we barely qualified this time and next time Japan won't have the host spot. Still, we have by far the youngest team of all nations in Tokyo so I guess there is plenty of room for improvement over the next three years.

Tomorrow (Friday) we still have our men's water polo semifinal, the race walkers, and a wrestler. Then on Saturday we have nothing except maybe our wrestler if he advances that far. Sunday we just have men's water polo, either the gold medal match or bronze match. It's sad that the Olympics are basically over for Greece. Hopefully we win a medal in water polo though. Without them making it to the semifinals, these Games would be so boring the next few days.

Greece's medalists all left so I'm not sure who will do it, maybe the captain of the water polo team especially if we win a medal?

I hope your girls can get bronze! I say that knowing I don't want your men's team to win their semifinal of course

Too bad that Stefanidi couldn't win a medal, but the three medalists were all better than her both tonight and in this season in general so congrats to them! So Greece got 4th place in both men's and women's pole vault competitions here Also 8th place for Kyriakopoulou is a nice result. She deserved to make an Olympic final in her career and I'm happy she finally did it even though tonight's competition was a mess from everyone outside the top 4.

Neither Kazakh girl cleared 1.90m in the women's high jump, after both needed 3 attempts to clear 1.86m.

Congrats to all medalists! Very happy that Kynigakis finished 5th. Just 22 years old. Looks like the future of Greek marathon swimming is in good hands even after Gianniotis' retirement. Overall I'm so proud of our Greek athletes despite the small number of medals so far in Tokyo. We had so many people in their late teens and early 20s achieve good results and it really makes me confident for 2024 and 2028.

10-4 So proud of our boys! Undefeated after six games This is the first semifinal at a big tournament (not counting World League) for our team since the 2017 World Championships At the Olympics it is just our second semifinal ever in 16 appearances, now hopefully we can get our first medal.

Yeah I'm confused about the new race walks. I wish they'd just add 50km for women but apparently there will still be 20km for both and some sort of 35km mixed relay? It's getting annoying that they try to make mixed events in every single sport...

I'm still feeling very good about these Games despite only winning 3 medals so far. I think men's water polo, Stefanidi and Prevolaraki are all very good medal chances as well as smaller chances for Volikakis, Kynigakis, Kyriakopoulou, Pilidis... The biggest highlight from Tokyo for me has been seeing how many good young athletes we have which makes me confident for the future. Ntouskos (24) and Tentoglou (23) winning gold medals is really great, and I expect to see them both back in Paris which would also be very nice. If they can stay healthy then I think they can take medals there as well. Karalis (21) coming 4th in the men's pole vault was a nice surprise. It looks like he is finally in the right direction again and I'm excited about his future. Bourmpou (20) and Kyridou (20) finishing 5th in the women's pair in rowing was also an incredible result for their ages, and I think they can also perhaps win a medal in Paris. Sakkari (26) and Tsitsipas (22) maybe didn't win medals, but in total we won 5 matches in tennis after not being represented in the sport since 2008 (and not winning any matches since 2004), so it was still a positive showing and I think in 2024 they will do even better. Teltsidou (25) finishing 7th in judo was a pleasant surprise, and I hope this gives her the confidence to take the next step in her career and start to become a medal contender in future competitions. Korakaki (25) finishing 6th in both shooting events is a tremendous accomplishment even if she won two medals in 2016. In a sport like shooting where age isn't so important, she will obviously be around for at least another 5-6 Olympics and I think it is fair to expect more medals from her. Karachaliou (24) finishing 9th in sailing was not bad for her first Olympics and I think we will see her in Paris, Los Angeles and maybe Brisbane. Ntountounaki (25) 9th in women's 100m butterfly. Best result from a Greek female swimmer since 2004. She seems like a late bloomer and hopefully she can keep improving and make the final in 2024. Same goes for Christou (24) in the men's 100m backstroke who was 11th. A.Kyridou (22) finishing 10th in the women's single sculls is also very good for her age. Everyone else who finished above her was 6+ years older than her. I think she can also win a medal in Paris, regardless of whether she competes in the single sculls or not (probably it is more likely for her to change categories). Tzeli (19) finishing 7th in taekwondo was also good even though she didn't win any matches. I liked what I saw from her and the fact that she qualified is very positive and a good sign for the future. Gkountoura (24) was disappointing that she lost so early in fencing but like Tzeli, I think she has a good future ahead of her. In field events, Scarvelis (25) and Polak (24) I think can do even better in Paris and make the finals in their events. Same goes for Anastasakis (26) and Frantzeskakis (21). Papastamos (20) had the second-best time of his career in the men's 400 IM and finished 14th. In Paris I think he can make the final. Divari (21) and Spanaki (20) in sailing didn't do so well but both are very young so it's okay. Same with Markos (19) in swimming. Obviously there are other young athletes like Pilidis, Kynigakis, Filtisakou and those on the men's water polo team who did not compete or did not finish yet. Also it's very nice that a lot of our older athletes like Psarra, Douvalidis, Kokkalanis, Tsiamis, Filippidis etc. showed a desire to continue to Paris. I think we can have a big team in Paris, maybe even 150+ if rowing goes well and we make it in more team sports (women's water polo, men's basketball, maybe women's basketball). Also Gkolomeev and Petrounias both expressed desire to win medals in Paris which is nice that they want to still compete at a high level.

Yeah I'm pretty confused about these new classes. Greece qualified 8 sailors for Tokyo and only one of them (Karachaliou in women's laser radial) will be able to make it to Paris without changes. Finn is done so I guess our athlete there (Mitakis) is done after three Olympics. I don't think at his age he will change classes. We had a men's 470 team and a women's 470 team, I guess we SHOULD qualify a mixed 470 team but stinks to only have two 470 athletes instead of four. I wonder if some our two 470 girls who won the quota but weren't selected will change to 49er or something. And our two RS:X athletes both said they will try to switch to foil, but it's pretty difficult especially for Kokkalanis who is already 35 and turning 36 in two weeks...

Karalis doped of course. That's the only way how he could possibly improve from 5.65 to 5.80 in less than one month.

Karalis also skipped 5.70m at the U23 and only had one attempt at 5.75 before trying for 5.80

If we beat Montenegro, it would be our second Olympic semifinal ever (we got 4th in 2004) At the World Championships, we've finished top 8 each of our last 10 appearances, but only made four semifinals (2003, 2005, 2015, 2017) and won two bronze medals (2005 and 2015) At the European Championships, we've had 13 top 8 finishes, but only two semifinals (1999 and 2016), and zero medals We have underachieved so much. Most of our players play for Olympiacos who won the Champions League for 2017-18 and got runner-up in 2018-19. We also have Fountoulis who played for Ferencvaros this year (runner-up) and Vlachopoulos for Brescia (third place). Nikolaidis (who didn't get called up) also plays for Brescia. And Papanastasiou plays for Jug Dubrovnik (5th place). We also have a lot of good young players, we won gold at four recent championships (2017 World U20, 2018 World U18, 2018 Euro U19, 2019 World U20). Some guys like Papanastasiou, Gkiouvetsis, Skoumpakis are here in Tokyo and were on some of those teams. I think Zerdevas (our main goalkeeper) too. I really think we have a very good team this year and this is a big chance to make SF and get a medal. I hope we don't mess it up. There is no reason why we should not be contending for medals at every major championships with the players we have!

So Karalis 4th in PV with 5.80 and Baehre 11th with 5.70... Hey @OlympicsFan, remember at the European U23s last month when you said Karalis only won silver because Mondo and Baehre weren't there? And that Karalis would not have won a medal if they went?

He is a native Greek speaker. I'm not sure about his education, perhaps he went to American schools of Greece and maybe he grew up speaking English at home as his mother is not Greek, but he was born in Greece, has a Greek father, lived in Greece his entire life and in interviews he speaks Greek perfectly.

This is correct. Greek is his native language and he lived his entire life in Greece.

Improvement from Mantis/Kagialis but not enough. They're now 6th with just the medal race to go. I was hoping they'd be able to win another medal after bronze in 2016 but I guess not. Too bad Looks like their bronze from 2016 will be the only Greek sailing medal from the last three Olympics combined. Pretty disappointing but I'm still somewhat optimistic about the future of Greek sailing.