Makedonas

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.

Wait, so these count towards the quotas (ex-32 in field events) or no? Also performances on June 29 are included in the rankings, correct? Or the rankings are released on June 29 based on results until June 28?

Was Safarova in the top 10 then?

Same story as 2016 when half the team was injured Would be impressive for Canada to make it considering we beat them 123-49 back in 2010. They've definitely improved a lot since then, while we've gone downhill.

And unless Kvitova goes far, there will be no Czech women in the top 10 for the first time since???

Elina Tzengko (women's javelin throw) Not sure if she will qualify for Tokyo but last year she did amazing as a 17 year old, 63.96 is her PB which is huge for her age, it was a U20WR (it didn't officially count because of no doping control at the event). She threw over 60m in all five of her events in 2020. Unfortunately this year she's had some injury problems, but still she's only 18. She won gold at the Youth Olympics in 2018 and in 2019 she was 4th at the European U20 Championships as a 16 year old (unfortunately that was her worst event of the season). Also pretty interesting that she was born in Greece to Albanian immigrant parents. We've only had two Olympians of Albanian background (despite Albanians being by far the largest immigrant group in Greece), and both of them were female javelin throwers (I don't count the weightlifters who were from the Greek minority of South Albania). So she would be our third Olympian with Albanian roots, and all of them in the women's javelin throw. Such a unique statistic, and it's not like Albania is some javelin throwing powerhouse or anything. Of course she will be the first one born in Greece as the other two were born in Albania and immigrated to Greece.

Do we know which athletes in the "Road to Tokyo" lists definitely/likely won't be going to Tokyo? For example in women's 400m, I thought Salwa Eid Naser is suspended (I'm not 100% sure)

That must be right, maybe I was only thinking it forgetting that it is possible for countries to only have 0-2 singles players but a full doubles team. In that case, disregard what I said about the Netherlands and I think also Croatia will benefit in men's doubles.

Fun fact about Evangelia Psarra, she has a 16 yo daughter named Maria who is the national champion in archery for her age group. Would be amazing if Maria can become Greece's next Olympian in archery. Maybe even in Paris? There is also a son who is younger than Maria and both of them are archers. How incredible that this family is singlehandedly putting Greek archery on the map!