Makedonas

Thank you for that. Wow, I didn't know. Will be interesting to see what happens with Greece. We have already qualified in the women's pair, and have big chances to qualify in the men's and women's single sculls, as well as the women's lightweight double sculls. Too bad that we can only pick one crew, but hopefully the others can qualify in May in Lucerne. Anneta Kyridou would probably be chosen if she finishes first in the women's single sculls, as she won bronze at last year's European Championship as a 21 year old and also gold at the last two European U23 Championships and gold at the last World U23 Championships. However, she is currently involved in a highly publicized lawsuit against the federation so that might play a role and Stefanos Ntouskos could get chosen instead, which would also be a good choice.

http://sportsfeed.gr/maxh-gia-th-1-olympiakh-thesi-sto-varese/ According to this article (in Greek), only countries with one or less quotas can gain quotas in Varese at the European qualifiers. This means that BLR, CRO, CZE, DEN, FRA, GER, GBR, ITA, IRL, LTU, NED, NOR, POL, ROU, ESP, and SUI all can't compete. Can somebody confirm this information? I am not sure how accurate it is. I knew that countries could only gain one quota from Varese, but I didn't know that already qualified countries with two or more crews can't compete.

Katerina Stefanidi (silver 2015, gold 2017, outdoor silver 2014, outdoor gold 2016, outdoor gold 2018) and Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou (bronze 2017, outdoor bronze 2012, outdoor silver 2018) will both be missing the event in the women's pole vault. Maria Belibasaki (women's 400 m), Emmanouil Karalis (men's pole vault), and Nicholas Scarvelis (men's shot put) will all be skipping the event as well. All five of these athletes achieved the qualifying standard but will not be competing due to injuries or focusing on outdoor season.

South Africa withdrew?

I agree, also tennis for sure Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari will qualify. Cycling I think we can get one in mountain biking, and shooting one more in men's skeet (Efthimios Mitas). Taekwondo we have Apostolos Telikostoglou who won silver in the 2019 World Championships and for the women Fani Tzeli who won bronze at the 2018 Youth Olympics, I think she has a better chance for 2024 though. Archery Evangelia Psarra will aim for her sixth consecutive Olympics but I'm not sure if she will be able to qualify. Boxing Nikoleta Pita is one win away from making it, as the tournament in London was underway already and I think Alexandros Tsanikidis can possibly make it. Wrestling the young Giorgos Pilidis has a chance too I believe. Will be difficult but not impossible.

Thank you. So the alternate will be included in the team roster or no? Will they be able to play or only if someone gets injured? Do they get a medal?

More for Greece now with men's water polo! Also we have 7 in swimming and 6 in athletics so far. I expect to have more in those two sports, especially athletics. We will also have more in rowing for sure. We will also definitely qualify in artistic swimming, judo, tennis, and we have good chances to qualify in fencing, weightlifting, karate, table tennis, gymnastics, taekwondo, diving, more in shooting, cycling and possibly wrestling and sailing. Also some chances for basketball, boxing, archery.

In the end there will be 12 or 13 players on each team?

So proud that we did it! I didn't think it was possible to not qualify at the beginning of the week, but we definitely made it more difficult for ourselves and I had some doubts later on. See you in Tokyo! Our 11th consecutive Olympic appearance in men's water polo, and 16th total!

We are still not where we should be. 9 of our 13 players play domestically and the league has been postponed for months because of COVID-19. However, it was announced just the other day that the league will start up again, so hopefully our players will be able to shake off their rust.

13-9 now! Less than six minutes to go. So close to Tokyo...

Greece leading 11-9 after the third period. We are so close, yet so far...I am so nervous

Greece will have the female quota, and whoever finishes fourth in the men's qualifier will have the male quota. He also said that the more time that passes, the less likely it is, but we must wait until April to know for sure.

A Greek sports journalist is doing a live feed for this match, and he said we will know by April if South Africa will compete or not (for both men's and women's), because they have a lot of economic problems and Covid problems related to water polo in their country.

They got 4th place each time, maybe they can finally take a medal in Tokyo?

Maybe she is half Greek. I've never heard of anyone who isn't Greek named Eleni, and Eleni is the second most popular name for Greek females. Also a lot of Greeks live in Sweden.

What do you know about her? Eleni is a Greek name

Greek water polo league has not had any games since October. Most of our players play in this league and I think they suffer because of it, they are not used to playing so many games maybe. I don't know because also last month we did very well in World League qualifying and it was the same situation back then with no games.

LOL

Somehow we escaped with a win. I can't see us winning one of the next two games with the way we are playing now. Well done to France for an incredible fight. You deserved it more than us. At least you know for sure you will be in Paris 2024.

Even if we win, I can't see us beating Russia. This team always fails under pressure.

First time since 1976 that our men's water polo team won't be at the Olympics. Unbelievable. We beat France 12-3 last month in World League qualifying. We also beat Spain and Montenegro. How could we get so bad a few weeks later?!

CANCEL THE OLYMPICS

https://www.ertflix.gr/ert3-live/

I will never understand countries who do this. I'm pretty sure Sweden and the Netherlands also do it. Weird because these are rich countries with resources. The Greek athletics federation always has their own entry standards for major competition which are more strict than the general ones, but not for the Olympics. We always try to get as many people as possible to the Olympics. It is a dream for these athletes! I don't understand how these NOCs kill their athletes dreams and prevent them from going when they already achieved qualification!