Makedonas

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.

So the 5th, 6th, 7th place finishers at 2019 WCH in men's single sculls will all be out. And 9th place finisher Simone Martini seems to be in horrible form. Looks like are favourites for the podium, with also having decent chances.

Kynigakis was 13th at the 2019 World Championships, really hope he can find a way to qualify here. Would be a shame for Greece to have no one to continue Gianniotis' legacy.

@YannakisWe currently have 62 athletes according to wikipedia. That is including tennis, although apparently we will lose the weightlifting quota due to a doping violation. However, it seems that we will get a spot in karate after all (Eleni Chatziliadou) and judo from Ntanatsidis and Teltsidou. So that's 64 athletes. Douvalidis, Filippidis, Karalis, Anastasakis, Frantzeskakis, Spanoudaki, S.Scarvelis, Tsinopoulou, and Filtisakou all look 95% certain to qualify via ranking in athletics, so that would bring the total up to 73. We still have Petrounias, basketball, beach volleyball, and open water swimming. Also hoping for some others in athletics. Pesiridou, Anagnostopoulou, and Tsiamis are currently in qualifying positions but I'm not sure if they can hold onto their rankings. Baniotis, N.Scarvelis, Vasiliou, Zakka, Gousin all still trying to make it via ranking but I'm not sure how likely it is. Maybe we can get some OST in swimming too. Also I think Pantazis, Tzengko, and Karydi have chances in athletics to make it if they reach the entry standards. Especially the latter two. Tzengko's PB is 63.96 and the standard is 64.00. Karydi's is 14.19 and the standard is 14.32. Both girls are super young (Tzengko born 2002 and Karydi born 2001) so they should improve these but they are also running out of time. Unfortunately it seems we will miss out in weightlifting for the first time since 1964, rhythmic gymnastics for the first time since 1984, and archery for the first time since 1996. There were definitely some surprises. Who could've predicted two years ago that Araouzou and Belibasaki would miss out?! Also we had 10 rowers in London and Rio, only 4 here (no Asoumanaki/Nikolaidou who got 4th in Rio as the youngest team in the event, both are injured). We had 9 or more gymnasts at every Olympics since 1996 I think, and so far we have zero qualified. Also we had some young athletes in Rio that I thought would continue to improve and qualify for Tokyo again, such as Kontochristopoulou in fencing, N.Scarvelis, Pappas, and Alexouli in athletics, Filiou in rhythmic gymnastics, a bunch of the rowers, Dimitriou in swimming...some of them either declined or retired. In Pappas' case, she changed events to the marathon and started doing well and then disappeared after covid. Maybe she got pregnant?

Wow, incredible that we aren't sending anyone. We just sent a full team to the European qualifiers. Sad that Psarra isn't getting one last chance to make it to her sixth consecutive Olympics. She had only a very small chance anyways, but after this it seems like Greek archery is dead. This is the final nail in the coffin. A shame because I actually like the sport

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQF9lUWpeS2/ Looks like she hasn't heard anything from WKF

Probably funding issues but also a lack of interest in the sport. Our legend Evangelia Psarra competed at the last 5 Olympics, however she has regressed a lot as she is getting older so I don't expect her to qualify this time around. And there's really no one else after her it seems. We had a girl at the 2010 Youth Olympics who won a medal in a mixed team event, but she seems to have disappeared. Aside from Psarra, Elpida Romantzi is our only archer to have qualified for the Olympics in recent memory (excluding Athens 2004 of course). Romantzi reached the round of 16 in Beijing and seems to have retired after. A shame because she was only 27 years old in Beijing. Psarra competed in Rio at age 42. Romantzi is 39 now, turning 40 next month.

Maria Belibasaki (athletics - 200m/400m) She competed in London and Rio in 200m. In 2018 she switched to 400m and immediately had success, winning silver at the European Championships (probably should've won gold but lost it in the last second) and smashed the NR. Unfortunately she has only competed in three races since then as she is always injured. Hope she can make it to Paris because she definitely would've made the semifinals in Tokyo and possibly even the final.

Unless there is some miracle, it will be the first time Greece is not represented in archery at the Olympics since 1996. It's already going to be the first time since 1964 that we won't be represented in weightlifting, and first time since 1984 that we won't be represented in rhythmic gymnastics. Not to mention our men's water polo team almost didn't qualify for the first time since 1976. So embarrassing to see our decline.