Makedonas

4th place for our 20 year old Emmanouela Katzouraki in the women's skeet. Not a bad result. We have a bunch of young shooters coming up it seems (like Chatzitsakiroglou who was 6th in the men's trap at the recent European Championships in his first competition at the men's level). We had one shooter in Beijing, three in London, two in Rio and will have two in Tokyo. I think in Paris we could possibly have 5-6 even!

What score would you have given Petrounias then?

Yeah I had mentioned that a few weeks ago that she would be suspended. Our man in 96kg apparently has a chance to get in if Colombia gets banned. So we'll see. Otherwise it will be the first time since 1964 that no Greek is in weightlifting at the Olympics. Sad, but somehow maybe better to not be involved in this mess of a sport...

We lost to Russia in the semifinals Sadly this was expected.

Apparently Greece is waiting for the decision on the Colombians because then we would get the quota in men's 96 because any changes after the deadline go to the next weightlifter in the rankings and not by continental quota. At least that is what I read.

He needed to score above 15.333, and this was the third time he did it this year (he did it at the European Championships in qualifying and the final). He was injured and missed competitions for a year, missing out on World Cup events where he could've won/prevented Liu Yang from gaining those points. Then at the World Championships (his first competition in over a year) he finished 4th and the top 3 were all from countries that didn't qualify in the team event, so 4th place did nothing for him. Then he won Melbourne World Cup, then he won Baku although the final was cancelled so his qualifying score was used as the final result. In Baku I'm sure his score in the final would've been more than the qualifying score, so he probably wouldn't have needed such a high score this time around anyways. He definitely deserves credit for qualifying against all odds. I'm sure the postponement of the Games also helped of course. I am sorry for Liu Yang. I wish there was a way that both can be in Tokyo but to say that Petrounias didn't deserve to qualify is a bit unfair especially considering everything he went through, and also the fact that Greece didn't qualify in the team event so we couldn't even use him there. Petrounias has been the best on the rings over the last 5 years so it would've been a crime if he didn't make it to the Olympics. Especially for our country, we don't win a lot of Olympic medals and he will be our only gymnast going to Tokyo. I know it still sucks for Chinese fans and I sympathise with them, but at least they know they will win other medals in gymnastics.

Very true. Speaking on behalf of Greece (I would say we are a mid size nation), we are way better in athletics now than we were in 2012 or 2016, but we will have less athletes because of these quota limits and high entry standards.

She only resigned because there was pressure as she faced a lot of backlash. And in our situation the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee had to get involved.

Greece's Kyridou sisters already got their Olympic rings tattoos... Really they should've waited until after the Olympics, especially this year when there is a chance that the Olympics may not be held...

Well I wasn't totally wrong here. Today it was revealed the reason why our archers weren't originally on the entry list. Someone in the federation made an error and signed them up for the wrong event This person has now resigned, but caused a lot of trouble to our archers who didn't know until a few hours before their flight whether or not they were going to be able to compete in Paris. And one of them ended up qualifying. Imagine if she didn't get the chance because some stupid lady who works for the federation (and probably never touched an archery bow in her entire life) accidentally registered them for a World Cup event instead of the World Olympic Qualifier. Such a careless and ignorant mistake.

I'm so nervous, I don't think I will sleep much tonight For Petrounias this will be harder than the Olympic final...it would be really amazing if he qualifies. Greece has had enough disappointments during this qualification period in various sports, really hope tomorrow won't be another one...

I believe so. However, it's unlikely that we make it unfortunately. If we somehow do make it, I expect a few changes to the roster if some of our other good players recover from injuries by then (in addition to Giannis and Thanasis being added to the roster).

Sorry for your girls but obviously I'm very happy for ours. Unfortunately I think our run will end in the semifinals. Will be very hard for us against Russia, especially since our second team is too young/inexperienced for this so our first team has to do all the work. Vicky is 36 and playing with injury so I don't know if she can really handle this. If they manage to qualify it will be an amazing story, after she made her Olympic debut in Athens as a 19 yo, played in Beijing and London, missed Rio, got pregnant, came back after giving birth, had a very bad injury and was out for almost a year and was going to miss Tokyo, then the Games got postponed so she had another chance, now here she is. I hope she tries to make it to Paris if they don't qualify for Tokyo but I'm not sure if her body is capable of it. She's had a very long career and probably wants to have more children.

Damn, too bad. I really don't see how it helps the sport to have South Africa there when they will lose every game by +20 goals. Hopefully our girls will finally make it back to the Olympics in 2024. If you told me in 2011 after we won the World Championships that we wouldn't make it to London, Rio, or Tokyo, I would've laughed at you...

I agree. Our 1996/1997/1998 boys looked so promising and did very well in those youth competitions, won a few European titles as well. Aside from Papagiannis and Mitoglou (and Dorsey who hasn't played for our national teams in years), none of those guys have really lived up to expectations. I expected much more from Charalampopoulos mostly, but also others like Koniaris, Mouratos, Lountzis, Toliopoulos etc. We'll be playing with mostly guys who are part of our qualifiers teams (when we can't use NBA or Euroleague players). Hopefully in the future the Antetokounmpo brothers are available because we really need them. In the past we had so much depth that it wasn't a big deal to miss a few key players here and there, but now things have really gone downhill. Also that 1996-1988 generation reminds me of the 1989-1991 generation which did very well and won some European titles in their age groups. Now I guess just Sloukas and Calathes are left from those teams (and Papanikolaou who is injured). Koufos, Mantzaris, Pappas, Jankovic...more was expected from these guys. I mean I think Kaselakis and Katsivelis were part of those teams, but those aren't really the guys we want on our senior team yet here they are. Agravanis is another player I had high expectations for but injuries ruined his career so far.

Our worst team ever?

http://sportsfeed.gr/pagkosmio-kypello-ston-telik-o-petrounias/ A Greek website but it only has for men's rings. Colak was second and Zanetti was third. Radivilov was 4th in qualifying with 14.633

For Greece you have 11 swimming and 1 swimming marathon, but it's actually 10 swimming and 1 swimming marathon.

https://sports3.gr/ethniki-gynaikon-polo-psigmata-elpidas-gia-symmetochi-stoys-olympiakoys-toy-tokio/ According to this, there is still a chance that South Africa's women will withdraw and Greece will take their spot. The FINA president informed Greece about it during the World League super final which was just held in Athens. So now the Greek girls are still training (in a combined training camp with Canada). We even got two girls who didn't compete in the World League to come back to the team for this training camp.

Petrounias 15.133 in qualifying. He needs 15.334 or better in the final to go to Tokyo. At the recent European Championships, he had 15.366 in qualifying and 15.400 in the final, so hopefully he can repeat that here.

It depends on the sport really. In some sports it doesn't make a difference, but in some it does. Artistic Swimming: I think it possibly helped because we qualified in the team event for the first time since 2004 and most of our girls are teenagers so it gave them an additional year to prepare. Athletics: I think it helped some athletes here and hurt others. For example Tentoglou now seems to be a favourite to win a medal in Tokyo, but I'm no longer confident in Stefanidi. Kyriakopoulou and Papachristou chances seem to have decreased a lot. And we have some athletes who are either definitely or probably going to miss the Olympics because of injuries in the past year that made them go down in the rankings or not compete at all (Belibasaki, Baniotis, Tsiamis, Gusin), though there were a few positives like our young race walker Filtisakou who seems to be safe to qualify. Didn't think she had a chance to make it until a few months ago. Boxing: It definitely hurt us as our best boxer who was one win away from making it to Tokyo in 2020 got injured and couldn't compete this year when the qualification tournament resumed. Rowing: I think it helped because our team is very young and even though it's a smaller team than usual, we have some outside chances for medals which we didn't think was possible back in 2019. Sailing: I think it probably hurt us that 2004 gold medalist Tsoulfa came back and took the spot of Bozi/Klonaridou who had a small chance to win a medal in Tokyo. They only had a very small chance, but they totally flopped in the internal qualification (when they were the only Greek crew in the event for 5 years until now) and Spanaki/Tsoulfa don't have any chance to win a medal but "stole" Bozi/Klonaridou's quota. Shooting: I think it was negative for us because one of our skeet shooters was in great form before covid and now he didn't qualify. Swimming: I think it helped some athletes here and hurt others. Taekwondo: Helped our young girl as she had an extra year but also we had a 2019 World Championships silver medalist (Telikostoglou) miss out, maybe in 2020 he would've made it. Tennis: I think it helped. Tsitsipas and Sakkari have improved a lot. Water Polo: Definitely hurt us. Strict lockdown rules prevented our teams from playing as the domestic leagues were shut down for several months. The women went to the qualifying tournament without having their players being in form and same with the men who almost didn't qualify. The men have more players who play in other countries, but still the domestic ones don't seem to be doing well. Olympiacos won the Champions League or made the final the last two seasons and then this year they got destroyed in the quarterfinals. Wrestling: I think it helped because one of the two wrestlers we qualified is very young and also was injured last year. Sports where we didn't qualify yet: Gymnastics: I think it definitely helped Petrounias' chances. We will know in the next few days if he will qualify or not, but it gave him more time to recover from his injury. Basketball: Horrible. Everyone is injured this year and with the NBA season running later than usual because they started late, we will be missing our two-time NBA MVP and his brother at the Olympic qualifying tournament. Usually the NBA season is already done by now. Beach Volleyball: We still likely won't qualify our girls, but one of them tore her ACL in late 2019 (Vasiliki Arvaniti who is a three-time Olympian). When she got injured that was the end of her Tokyo dream, and then when the Games were postponed suddenly she had another chance as she had time to recover from her injury. So if they qualify then it definitely helped.

It's one per gender, and they don't have any women qualified so that's why they get to use it for women's long jump.

No, it's only for countries that don't have anyone qualified in any events in athletics. Poland has many in athletics so they can't use it.

Looks like they don't count in women's 100m either actually, good news for Spanoudaki who is currently 50th.

Damn, a lot of Greek athletes are impacted now. Spanoudaki seemed safe in the women's 100 and 200 and now is borderline. Same with Frantzeskakis and Anastasakis in the men's hammer. Anagnostopoulou in the women's discus and Pesiridou in the women's 100 hurdles now really 50/50. And a huge uphill battle for Vasiliou in the women's 400, a shame because her times in the indoor season were amazing so I expected much more from her outdoors. Douvalidis should still be safe in the men's 110 hurdles which is a relief especially since he's been injured most of the season and missed the national championships which would've been easy points for him. And our girls in the 20km walk should also be safe. Same with Filippidis and Karalis in men's pole vault and Scarvelis in the women's hammer.