Makedonas

Well the Bucks just won so there goes any chance of having Giannis or Thanasis at the OQT. We are a mess, all of our good forwards will be missing except Mitoglou. Papanikolaou and Papapetrou both injured, and now it looks like Printezis is injured too. Such a disgrace that a big basketball nation like Greece hasn't qualified since 2008. 2012 was the biggest joke ever, we had a good roster and totally choked (even though Spanoulis got fouled on that 3 at the buzzer which wasn't called). 2016 we were plagued with injuries and now 2020 is like 2016 all over again... Our national teams in basketball and water polo especially just love to underachieve

So many people picked Greece to qualify in women's water polo, women's basketball, and men's basketball and it looks like we'll get none of them in the end (Yes we got men's water polo at least)

When is the first realistic medal chance of the Games for your nation? Day 2-Anna Korakaki in the women's 10m air pistol. She won bronze in it last time, is the current world champion and also won medals at the 2019 and 2020 European Championships in that event, so why not another medal? Of course shooting is unpredictable but I think she's the first realistic chance. Not saying she will win one. When do you think your nation will get their first medal and in which event? Day 7-Anna Korakaki in the women's 25m pistol. She won gold last time. We also have the men's single sculls final in rowing on Day 7 and I think Stefanos Ntouskos has good chance to win a medal. So between Korakaki and Ntouskos, I think at least one of them will win a medal on Day 7. Also on Day 7 we could have finals in the women's single sculls (Anneta Kyridou) and men's 200 IM (Andreas Vazaios) but those two are much less likely to win medals than Korakaki and Ntouskos in my opinion. Is there a bumper day for your nation where you expect more than one or a few medals to come? If so, what day? Day 7 as I mentioned, and also Day 10 (Petrounias in the men's rings - if he qualifies, and Tentoglou in the men's long jump). There are a few others like Day 9 and Day 13, but Day 7 and Day 10 are better chances. Is there a day when you expect to have not so much competitors from your nation competing or no chances for medals? Day 1 for sure we won't win medals, also Day 15 and Day 16 we won't unless our men's basketball and water polo teams make it that far. Days 4, 5, 6, and 11 are also very unlikely but we have small chances those days.

Men's water polo would be nice. We've qualified for 11 consecutive Olympics and still never won a medal. Best was 4th place in 2004. We were 6th in Rio. I think it would be a bit surprising if we won a medal this year which would make it fun. Also we got two World Championships bronze medals (2005 and 2015) so it's a bit disappointing that we haven't been able to be successful like that in the Olympics. Stefanos Tsitsipas/Maria Sakkari. Any medal in tennis from either (or both) would be really cool. Byron Kokkalanis (sailing). He was 6th in London and 5th in Rio. I really want him to win a medal and he's 35 yo so this is probably his last chance, especially since we have good young sailors in the same event that might surpass him even if he sticks around another three years. I really hope Tokyo 2020 can be his Gianniotis Rio 2016 moment. Paraskevi Papachristou (triple jump) and Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou (pole vault). Both are mothers which is a nice story. Both also won a lot of World/European Championships medals but never Olympics and both are in their 30s now. Papachristou I think will have one more chance in Paris but I don't think Kyriakopoulou will still be around. I really like both of them too. For example I like them more than Stefanidi (nothing personal against her, I just prefer these two). Also I feel Papachristou was unfairly treated when they kicked her out of London 2012, so this would be the biggest revenge to her haters if she wins a medal here. Any of our three boats in rowing. One of my favourite sports and all of our rowers here are very young (the oldest is 24) and we have a lot of problems in rowing. I think a youngster winning an Olympic medal would really help the situation and maybe attract some more sponsors. Of course any medal would be fun but these are probably the ones I want to see the most. I only included people/teams that have some chances to win. For example I'd love for us to win a medal in a track event, but that's obviously not going to happen so I didn't include it. I also excluded others who already won medals (Stefanidi, Petrounias, Korakaki, Tsoulfa, Mantis, Kagialis) and some which are more expected (Tentoglou). I'd also like to say men's basketball but I'll wait to see if they even qualify first.

I have a few: women's water polo (I'm sure everyone on this website secretly wants them to break the 4th place curse) Simona Halep - tennis (I love to watch her play and I know it is so important for her) Zorana Arunovic - shooting (For the amazing career she's had, it is crazy that she never won any Olympic medal) Novak Djokovic - tennis (It is crazy that in his career so far he only won one bronze. Of course I want Tsitsipas to win gold but I'd also like to see Djokovic win silver or bronze ) Darya Klishina - long jump (I always wanted her to win an Olympic medal) Mariya Lasitskene - high jump (She deserves an Olympic medal in her career) Kendra Harrison - 100 hurdles (I thought she was so unlucky in 2016 that she missed the Olympics despite breaking the world record a few weeks prior) Helen Maroulis - wrestling (Of course she is half Greek, and she was going to compete for us after not being selected for London but there were some delays in her paperwork, anyways she won gold for USA in 2016 and they named the main square after her of the town in Greece where her grandparents live) Alex Kesidis - wrestling (He is also Greek and actually his brother competes for Greece and was in the qualifying tournaments but didn't make it to Tokyo) Orlando Ortega - 110 hurdles (His coach is Greek) women's basketball (Their coach is Greek. She was born in Canada but her parents are Greek and she used to play professionally in Greece so she is quite well known in Greek basketball)

Are we sure that Badosa and Tig will not play? I think they are relaxing the Fed Cup restrictions for players like them who rose up a lot in the last year or two and didn't have many chances to play Fed Cup. It's completely fair too. Do you really think Spain was going to choose Badosa in 2017, 2018, or 2019 for Fed Cup when they had other better players? Same with Romania and Tig. Karatsev for example was originally listed as not eligible (due to the same reasons) on Wikipedia until a Russian source confirmed that he will play. So, I think we should know that there are some mistakes on Wikipedia regarding player eligibility. Gauff is another example of someone who is listed as eligible even though she technically doesn't meet the requirements. So I think they will also make these exceptions for players like Badosa and Tig (Sebastian Korda also for example). Now others like Hercog and Martic are people they should not make exceptions for. Also sorry if I am not doing a good job trying to explain this. English is not my first language.

I thought they only counted once, but in the rankings they are counted twice for many athletes. However, they are not held in the "same year" so maybe that's why? Because some have national championships from both 2019 and 2021 in their rankings

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/long-jumper-manyonga-gets-four-year-ban-anti-doping-violation-2021-06-18/ Sorry if this was already said. I haven't seen anything here. The stars are really aligning for Tentoglou to win a medal in Tokyo...

I think the ranking points were less than Masters 1000 events

I agree, which is why I think for Paris 2024 maybe more players will go (except those who hate clay I guess)

Yes that is true, but I remember the great Serbian women's team in 2015 and I'm pretty sure they didn't have any Americans back then? I used to respect Serbia a lot for being one of the few countries (especially in the Balkans) that didn't naturalize anyone in men's or women's basketball, but now I guess Greece is the only one who still doesn't do that (Tyler Dorsey had a Greek grandfather so he doesn't count, also his mother was born in Greece I think)

No surprise we got destroyed by Serbia. Crazy that we actually beat them at Eurobasket 2017 but we only had four players from that 2017 Greek team playing today. I didn't see the game today, but happy that our 17 year old Eleni Bosgana got to play 20 minutes and scored 9 points. I wish she played more yesterday. There's obviously a reason why she's going to Stanford this year, the team that won the NCAA women's championship. Tsineke only played 7 minutes but at least she scored 6 points. No idea why Stamolamprou didn't play, I guess injury, but surely Tsineke should've played more when you had other guards like Diela (22 minutes) and Alexandri (16 minutes) playing so much when they did nothing based on the stats. Also at least we made some 3s (5/13) unlike yesterday (1/11). I'm surprised Serbia has a naturalized American. I thought they were better than that. Shame.

What a surprise, another loss on penalties against Russia for us Anyone know why three of our best players (Eleftheriadou, Ninou, Xenaki) were suspended for our first two group matches? Would've been a good test against USA and Spain if we actually had them. They played against Kazakhstan, Russia, and Japan but not our first two games.

I don't remember so many tennis players withdrawing from London 2012 for example, or Beijing 2008

You are right, thank you. I didn't see them originally but I guess that wasn't the final entry list. Would be incredible if Psarra could make it to her sixth Olympics. Only two Greeks have ever made it to six Olympics, and none have been in more than six (though I think Anna Korakaki in shooting will break that record one day)

Yes but it's one week out of the year. It really won't kill them. It's a good experience in my opinion.

I don't understand some of these players. They have no national pride? At least Thiem is big and won a Grand Slam. For some of the low ranked players who skip, what is their reason? Wouldn't being in the Olympics be a career highlight for them? I just don't understand it!

Is Veszelka not chasing the Olympic ranking anymore? He's injured? I ask because our triple jumper Dimitrios Tsiamis is right above him in the Olympic ranking (Tsiamis is also injured right now but hoping to make Tokyo)

Greece was so bad today. It was painful to watch. 1/11 from 3 points, just a horrible stat. Complete opposite of the Maltsi/Kaltsidou/Dimitrakou days. We have a very limited team as Eleanna Christinaki (arguably our best player) is out due to injury as well as Anna Spyridopoulou (our best shooter). But today was worse than expected. We are already going to be eliminated in this phase so I'd like to see some changes for the next two games: 1. Spanou needs to stop shooting 3s. She does it all the time and misses like 90% of them. Today she was 0/4. 2. Bosgana and Tsineke need to play more. They barely played today, and for what reason? Both play on top American NCAA college teams. They are the future of our national team and their development over the next few years will play a big role in whether or not we qualify for Paris 2024 (yes I think there is a big chance if everyone is healthy especially since our team is so young). 3. Pavlopoulou and Stamolamprou need to be the starting guards, not Nikolopoulou. I know Nikolopoulou scored 19 points today but it was a fluke. She never scores a lot of points. Always all she does is make wild turnovers all the time and somehow she is still in the starting lineup after so many years. I don't understand. She's already 30 years old too. Pavlopoulou and Stamolamprou are the future (and they are better shooters too, clearly we need good shooters if we are 1/11 as a team from 3 points). Nikolopoulou can play from off the bench but not as a starter. 4. Keep two of Fasoula/Spanou/Sotiriou/Bosgana on the court at all times. We struggle to get rebounds and it doesn't help when the coach only has one tall girl on the court at certain times. I understand that we are very limited with options because we lack depth especially with key players being injured this year (also another one of our young stars Ioanna Chatzileonti can't play this year either) so I don't want to sound too critical, but today's game was really winnable. Montenegro let us back in the game in the 4th and we started missing easy shots, Spanou going for desperate 3s that she was never going to make, and Nikolopoulou with all of her stupid turnovers.

Greece won't have Papapetrou due to injury. Congrats Canada

Just want to say I am proud of Greece for not having any naturalized players. We are playing against Montenegro now reminds me of how so many of these teams have Americans who are their best players. So ridiculous.

Not tortilla, tortellini

The tournament starts on Thursday. I had high hopes for Greece but everything is going wrong. Two of our best players will not be there, Eleanna Christinaki and Anna Spyridopoulou both have serious injuries. Also, Jacki Gemelos retired because of injuries. Her last game was our final qualifier vs Bulgaria in February. I hope it's a good experience for our girls. We have such a young team. Better to have injuries now than at Eurobasket 2023 because I really think our girls have a good chance to qualify for Paris 2024 if everyone is healthy. We don't have a lot of depth, but we have some quality players and I think within the next few years we'll have 2-3 more quality players as our teenagers develop more.

Seems like the right decision to give him some experience because Martini has had very bad results lately

Team Greece Men's Single Sculls Stefanos Ntouskos Women's Single Sculls Anneta Kyridou Women's Pair Christina Bourmpou Maria Kyridou Our smallest rowing team since 2004 (after Athens 2004 we really grew the sport in Greece for a number of years). We had 10 rowers in London and 10 in Rio, with Ntouskos being the only one returning. However, there are some positive signs. Ntouskos is our oldest rower at 24. A.Kyridou is 22 and Bourmpou and M.Kyridou are both just 20 years old (they qualified via the 2019 World Championships as 18 year olds). We have such a young team and Tokyo might not be their time, but I think if we can keep them for Paris 2024 then that can be their time to shine. Of course that is a big IF, as we had three teenage rowers in Rio and Ntouskos is the only one still competing Anyways I think Ntouskos can possibly win a medal but I don't want to get too excited. I think he's probably expected to finish about 4th-5th while both women's boats are probably expected to finish 6th-9th or so.