Makedonas

The European Championship was very unbalanced. All of the best rowers were in the same semifinal. At the European Qualification, Kyridou fell into the water a few minutes before the race, so that is why she did so poorly in the final and finished way behind the rest of the field. In the heats she dominated. Let's not forget Kyridou won bronze at the 2020 European Championships at the young age of 21. She also won gold at the last two European U23 Championships, beating out Foester.

Each country is only allowed to send four athletes?

So Greece will only sent three boats to Lucerne. Anneta Kyridou is our best chance to qualify, but Klimovich and Foester will be tough. Small chance for Dymchenko as well, but I think the two quotas for W1X will be between Kyridou, Klimovich and Foester. Anastasiadou/Fitsiou definitely have a chance in LW2X, but it will be tough. Especially since Nikolaidou is not fit in time to replace Fitsiou who is clearly the weakest link. Having three available quotas in this event definitely increases our chances, but there are so many other teams going for those spots so it will be tough. Kalandaridis/Papakonstantinou is an interesting team for M2X. Kalandaridis was competing in M2- and Papakonstantinou in LM2X just last month. Obviously they didn't do too well with their partners, but both are young so now let's see how they do together. Not expecting anything though. I'm disappointed that we didn't send a W2X. Nikolaidou not being fit probably ruined the chances (though she might've done lightweight anyways) and all of our other girls (Asoumanaki, Tsamopoulou, Christodoulidis etc) are basically in the US right now for college rowing. Tsamopoulou took the year off from school to prepare for the Olympics, but they wouldn't accept her in the national team. Makes no sense because she won gold at the last World U23 Championships in this event but whatever. Our 18 yo talent Evangelia Fragkou has been at training camps all year long with the Olympic team so I expected them to find a partner for her but I guess not. I expect that Kyridou will qualify so we will send four rowers to Rio. A big disappointment after we sent 10 rowers to both London and Rio. And Ntouskos will be the only one returning from Rio...

Despite not qualifying any divers for the second consecutive Olympics, I am confident that we will have divers in Paris 2024. All three of the guys we sent here were very young (19-21 years old) and the best is yet to come for sure! They will be more ready in three years

What happened? Any chance to qualify for Tokyo?

We are sending Telikostoglou, Chamalidis, Tzeli and Mitsopoulou

Thank you for your kind words. They are young so hopefully they make it to Paris 2024

Looks like no Greek divers at the second consecutive Olympics

Ugh, Chatziliadou absolutely must qualify. She was so unlucky to miss many events with injuries and fall in the rankings because of that

Wow, our girl actually won a silver medal

2019 World Championships we beat China 12-8 in the playoffs. Also 2017 World Championships we beat Australia twice (11-8 in group stage and 8-6 in 7th place match). I know you didn't ask for that but I should've included them too. We have not played against Canada in this Olympic cycle as far as I know (not sure if there have been friendlies), but we beat Canada 11-4 in the 2016 Olympic Qualifying Tournament and 8-5 at the 2015 World Championships. I believe those were the last two meetings between our nations in women's water polo. Canada also qualified by finishing second at the Pan American Games, where they lost 24-4 in the final...

South Africa not withdrawing? It's a big disgrace. Greece deserves to be there. Our girls just won Euro League again with Olympiacos, all players on the roster are Greeks. Sorry if this sounds rude but Australia, China, and Canada being automatically in Tokyo is also a joke. They did not have to swim one metre to earn their spots. Pure luck based on what continents they are from. We always beat them too (especially China and Canada), so I don't want to hear it from any of them. You guys know we are better than you too, so don't even try to say otherwise. These teams don't have chances to win a medal. We do.

SO PROUD OF OUR GIRLS! Truly amazing to be European champions once again Every member of our team is Greek. It's a shame that our clubs do so well but our national team always comes up short. Of course we deserve to be in Tokyo over South Africa and Canada.

Our federation is really shameful. Our women's 4x400 team should be in Tokyo. Even the 4x100 team could've snuck in. We haven't had relays since 2019 and our girls are doing so much better now individually. Maria Belibasaki (2018 400m European silver medalist) didn't even compete on our relay team in 2019. We are clearly better than our times from 2019 but our federation decided to not send anyone to Poland. Morons.

Where can I find the draw for women's +68 kg? Thank you

Another European final for Olympiacos' women. The entire team is Greek. They always do so well but our national team (with basically the same players) can't qualify for the Olympics since 2008. Very frustrating!

Our women's 4 x 400 would've had a chance to qualify for Tokyo. Unfortunately our federation decided to not send them!

Okay thank you so much for this. I know nothing about diving so I really appreciate your comments!

Athletics is interesting. Currently we have three in women's pole vault (Stefanidi, Kyriakopoulou, Polak), one in men's long jump (Tentoglou), women's triple jump (Papachristou), and women's 20km walk (Drisbioti). If we look at the rankings/Road to Tokyo, Douvalidis, Papamichail, Anastasakis, Frantzeskakis, Filippidis, Karalis and Tsiamis will all qualify from the men. I think Baniotis, Scarvelis, and Zikos also have decent chances. Baniotis has been injured and if he's healthy he shouldn't have a problem improving his ranking. Scarvelis had a big throw last year which didn't count for the rankings of course, and Zikos has done well in 60m and needs to replicate that in 100m to improve his ranking. For the women, it looks like we will get three quotas in the 20km walk (Tsinopoulou and either Filtisakou or Papadopoulou in addition to Drisbioti). Also in qualifying positions right now are Anagnostopoulou, Scarvelis, Vasiliou, Pesiridou, and Spanoudaki. Belibasaki and Tzengko will surely qualify by entry standard if healthy (they currently don't have rankings because they didn't compete in enough events). Karydi also has a really good chance, either in the triple jump or long jump or both. And I wouldn't count out Pappas in the marathon, or one of our female high jumpers (Zakka or Gusin) or Kolokytha in the long jump. Our women's 4x400 team could be very good but they never have a full squad with both Belibasaki and Vasiliou in unfortunately, and they won't compete at the world relays either. There are some girls who in 2016 I thought for sure would qualify for Tokyo. Iliana Korosidou, Anastasia Marinakou, Konstantina Romaiou, Tatiana Gusin, Panagiota Dosi, Dimitra Gnafaki, Haido Alexouli. Sadly many of these girls struggled in recent years. Also last time we had three female marathon runners in Rio, but now the standard is so difficult... In the end, I think our Tokyo 2020 athletics team will look something like this: Men: Douvalidis, Papamichail, Tentoglou, Filippidis, Karalis, Anastasakis, Frantzeskakis, Scarvelis, Tsiamis...maybe Baniotis or Zikos too. Women: Spanoudaki, Belibasaki, Vasiliou, Pesiridou, Drisbioti, Tsinopoulou, Filtisakou, Stefanidi, Polak, Kyriakopoulou, Papachristou, Tzengko, Scarvelis, Anagnostopoulou...maybe Karydi or Zakka too. I don't expect the others like Kolokytha, Zikos, Pappas etc to qualify at this point but I hope I am wrong.

Teltsidou and Ntanatsidis will probably qualify in judo, and we have a good chance in artistic swimming for the team (in addition to the duet). Chatziliadou in karate would be one of our best chances for a medal if she can qualify. Men's basketball I think is 50/50. Let's not forget boxing we have a few chances with Pita and Tsanikidis mostly.

What about Greek chances? Thank you.

Does anyone who knows about diving think Greece has chances for quotas? I guess Molvalis would be our best hope?

Kokkalanis won bronze! In the women's event, our young athlete Katerina Divari got 15th. A good position for her at her age. She is only 21.

My updated predictions for Greece Archery: 0-1 (Evangelia Psarra is probably our only chance, it would be her 6th Olympic appearance but she is old now so I don't know) Artistic Swimming: 2-8 (We will definitely qualify in the duet. Team is 50/50) Athletics: 23-35 (We currently have 6 and there are many more who I'm 99% sure will make it off ranking, some others if they improve this year can make it and also hoping for a women's 4x400. We have many good young athletes that might not be ready for Tokyo but in Paris I expect a big team) Badminton: 0 Baseball: 0 of course (but our former national team player Nick Markakis was an MLB All-star in 2018 , and Moustakas in 2015/17/19) Basketball: 0-12 (our men's team should make it but they always choke and have bad luck with injuries in Olympic years) Beach Volleyball: 0-2 (Arvaniti/Karagkouni have some chances to qualify. Would be Arvaniti's 4th Olympics. They missed 2016 because of her pregnancy and got lucky with the postponement of Tokyo because she had an ACL injury and would've missed 2020) Boxing: 0-3 Canoeing - Slalom: 0-1 (small chance for Tsakmakis to make his fourth Olympics) Canoeing - Sprint: 0-1 (I don't know much about this sport but I know we have a young guy Dimopoulos who is decent but probably too young/inexperienced for Tokyo) Cycling - BMX: 0 Cycling - Mountain Bike: 0-1 (Our team ranking fell a lot in recent months and we are no longer in the qualification zone) Cycling - Road: 1 Cycling - Track: 1 Diving: 1-2 Equestrian: 0 Fencing: 1 Field Hockey: 0 Football: 0 Golf: 0-1 (there is some Greek guy from South Africa who is trying to qualify for Greece but I know nothing about golf and don't know if he is any good) Gymnastics - Artistic: 1 (assuming Petrounias makes it) Gymnastics - Rhythmic: 0-1 (chance for Eleni Kelaiditi. Our group surely won't qualify which would be the first time since 1996. They aren't good anymore) Gymnastics - Trampoline: 0 Handball: 0 Judo: 2-4 Karate: 0-2 (Eleni Chatziliadou was world champion in 2018 so she should make it, but she was injured and her ranking fell so I'm not sure what her current status is) Modern Pentathlon: 0 Rowing: 4-10 (we already qualified women's pair and men's single sculls and will almost certainly make it in women's single sculls. Also a decent chance for lightweight women's double sculls. Outside chances for one or two more boats, but a lot of these athletes are too young and probably will make it in 2024 instead) Rugby Sevens: 0 Sailing: 8 Shooting: 3 Skateboarding: 0 Softball: 0 Sport Climbing: 0? (I know absolutely nothing about this sport) Surfing: 0? (I also don't have a clue) Swimming: 10-18 (we already have 7 and I think we'll get several more. Outside chance for men's 4x200 freestyle which would give us more athletes that probably can't make it individually) Table Tennis: 1 Taekwondo: 0-4 (Telikostoglou should make it as he won silver at 2019 World Championships. Tzeli was a medalist at the 2018 Youth Olympics and should have a better chance to make it now that she got an extra year. We have a few others with outside chances) Tennis: 2 Triathlon: 0? (no idea) Volleyball: 0 Water Polo: 12 (unless South Africa and/or Russia don't go and our women make it too) Weightlifting: 1-2 Wrestling: 1-2 Total Sports: 28 Optimistic Total Athletes: 140 Realistic Total Athletes: 103 Pessimistic Total Athletes: 74

So we now have 43 so far for Tokyo. In the next two weeks we will have diving, wrestling, and taekwondo qualification tournaments coming up. I hope we can get one or two divers and I think it's possible. Wrestling we already have Prevolaraki, maybe Pilidis can make it too. In taekwondo we have four good athletes who will try to qualify. I hope 1-2 can make it. Telikostoglou has to make it, surely. Hopefully after these we will have 46-47 total. Later in May we will know more about rowing, cycling (cross-country), weightlifting, and shooting. And of course swimming and athletics are ongoing. We only have 6 currently for athletics, but I think in the end we will have at least 22-23.