Makedonas

3 more days! 
 

Full Schedule: https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wmcc/aspnet/summary?EventID=1
 
Main headliner in the opening draw is  v.

Now that you mention it there are probably a few other examples in sports like wrestling, judo, etc. where only 1 athlete per NOC is allowed no matter what (unlike fencing where you can either have 1 or 3 but not 2...)

Our top two fencers are in the top 5 but our third girl is ranked 147 and then after that our next girl is 227. We are not a big fencing country, so it's actually a miracle that we have two girls somehow in the top 5. We have Kontochristopoulou in the women's foil ranked 86. No one else in any weapon or gender is top 100 (special shout out though to 18 yo Garyfallou who is ranked 102 in the women's foil ).
 
The sport has grown since 2004 slowly I guess. I mean, I don't personally know anyone who has ever competed in fencing even at an amateur/recreational level unlike other sports, so I can't speak much about it, but since 2004 we had Vougiouka, Gkountoura, and Georgiadou all very successful, so the federation must be doing something right because for decades we won no medals and rarely qualified any fencers to the Olympics.
 
As @phelps said, it is very hard to qualify as a European team.
 
Our team made a serious effort the last few years and are ranked 12th which is much better than they were before this Olympic cycle but still they are very far from the top 5/6, and let's not forget this is without Russia who won gold at in Tokyo in the team event!
 
Georgiadou seems like she will stay on until Los Angeles at least, she will be 37 yo. Gkountoura will be 31 so it's not a problem for her. The issue is finding a third fencer, though 15 yo Kourousi and 21 yo Mavrikaki have had some promising results (especially Kourousi for her age) so hopefully we can get a "decent" third sabre fencer and make a push to qualify for Los Angeles.
 
I was saying for the past few years we should try to bring Vougiouka out of retirement, she was top 5 or so for some years and retired after Rio at 30 yo which is not that old in fencing, but it obviously never happened for Tokyo or Paris so I can't see it happening for Los Angeles, the more that time passes the less likely a comeback will be...

I am not saying this is why we lost, we should always be able to win against a team like Georgia, who aside from their goalkeeper and Kvaratskhelia have mostly players who play for small clubs, I mean one of their defenders on Tuesday night plays for Panetolikos, which is one of the worst teams in the Greek Super League.
 
We would never in a million years have a player in our starting 11 from a bottom table Greek club like that, yet here we are losing to a team that does...
 
I agree the old system was better, I'm sure you know because Italy was also a victim of this format for 2022, but if anything maybe the matches should be at a neutral location instead of giving one team the home advantage? I'm curious to see statistics on how many home teams advanced since they implemented this new system.

Now that you mention it there are probably a few other examples in sports like wrestling, judo, etc. where only 1 athlete per NOC is allowed no matter what (unlike fencing where you can either have 1 or 3 but not 2...)

For EURO it is rather negative sum.
 
Only 2 out of 7 (well, 3 if you count neutral venue for as home...)
 
Home Final qualified
EURO 2020 & EURO 2024 (home but neutral venue lol)* &
 
Away Final qualified
EURO 2020 & & EURO 2024
 
 
However for World Cup this system was implemented only once for 2022 and funnily enough only home teams won the play-off final
&

In judo,  Jessica Klimkait has won bronze medals at the last two World Championships in women’s 57kg, and is #2 in the OQR (approximately 2700 points ahead of #3 Gjakova) but due to the one judoka per NOC rule there’s a possibility that she might not even qualify. Right now, she’s in a fierce internal selection battle with Christa Deguchi, who’s the reigning World Champion, and current #1 in the OQR (approximately 1500 points ahead of #2 Klimkait)
 
Judo Canada has yet to select their athlete though, so they could still pick Klimkait over Deguchi. 
 
Judo Canada Olympic Selection Criteria
Highest Finish at 2022 Worlds (1 pt) - Klimkait
Highest Finish at 2023 Worlds (2 pts) - Deguchi
Highest Finish at 2024 Worlds (2 pts) - TBD
Olympic Ranking (2 pts) - likely will be Deguchi

Also last thing I will say for now (sorry for spamming this topic) is that a fencing medal could really change the sport in Greece and bring more attention and sponsors, so that makes it frustrating that we have two serious medal contenders but only one can compete.
 
@phelps gave the great example of Italy in 2016 and that is pretty insane, and I don't want to "play the victim" but for us it means so much more in a way because fencing is so irrelevant in our country, and it feels like we are being denied the chance to make it relevant, while Italian fencing for example is so strong and historic that for them to experience this too is just such a different scenario.
 
In Tokyo we had high expectations for Gkountoura and she crashed out in the first round, hopefully she can do better here...

Our top two fencers are in the top 5 but our third girl is ranked 147 and then after that our next girl is 227. We are not a big fencing country, so it's actually a miracle that we have two girls somehow in the top 5. We have Kontochristopoulou in the women's foil ranked 86. No one else in any weapon or gender is top 100 (special shout out though to 18 yo Garyfallou who is ranked 102 in the women's foil ).
 
The sport has grown since 2004 slowly I guess. I mean, I don't personally know anyone who has ever competed in fencing even at an amateur/recreational level unlike other sports, so I can't speak much about it, but since 2004 we had Vougiouka, Gkountoura, and Georgiadou all very successful, so the federation must be doing something right because for decades we won no medals and rarely qualified any fencers to the Olympics.
 
As @phelps said, it is very hard to qualify as a European team.
 
Our team made a serious effort the last few years and are ranked 12th which is much better than they were before this Olympic cycle but still they are very far from the top 5/6, and let's not forget this is without Russia who won gold at in Tokyo in the team event!
 
Georgiadou seems like she will stay on until Los Angeles at least, she will be 37 yo. Gkountoura will be 31 so it's not a problem for her. The issue is finding a third fencer, though 15 yo Kourousi and 21 yo Mavrikaki have had some promising results (especially Kourousi for her age) so hopefully we can get a "decent" third sabre fencer and make a push to qualify for Los Angeles.
 
I was saying for the past few years we should try to bring Vougiouka out of retirement, she was top 5 or so for some years and retired after Rio at 30 yo which is not that old in fencing, but it obviously never happened for Tokyo or Paris so I can't see it happening for Los Angeles, the more that time passes the less likely a comeback will be...

it might happen...
 
and it's not even the first time it actually happens
 
in Rio, Italy didn't qualify the women's epee team despite having Fiamingo (undisputed no.1 in the world at that time, world champion and world cup champion in 2014 and 2015) and Navarria (who in 2016 was the no.2 in the world behind Fiamingo and had to miss those Olympic Games because of that same rule)
 
p.s. to qualify the team, it's not enough being a "reasonable" team, in Europe you generally need to be among the 5 best teams in the world to qualify (look at Germany in the men's team sabre...they're no.6 in the world and despite that, they're out)
fencing is one of the sports with the hardest qualifying pathways, it's easier to win a medal when you're in than qualifying for the Games

Maybe it's time to let 2 athethes per NOC to qualify via ranking like in table tennis.

It`s true that the current play-off system is brutal and not very fair. The old system with a match and a rematch was better.

Maybe for you guys it is laughable, you were in an easy group and struggled so much, and even against Wales did not have a shot on goal the entire 120 minutes and still qualified.
 
For us we were in the toughest group, fought very hard in two games against France and one game against the Netherlands, won all games against the other teams, won our Nations League group, beat Kazakhstan 5-0 on Thursday, and had one poor game at Georgia where even though we didn't concede a goal, we could not score, and lost on penalties, and will not be at the Euros...
 
So it's all about perspective, you think it is easy but for us it is not easy.
 
The sad thing is we qualified for three consecutive Euros (2004, 2008, 2012) and made the quarterfinals or better in two of those, then they increased the amount of teams to 24 for the next three (2016, 2020, 2024) and we did not manage to qualify for any of them!
 
2016 was probably the worst as we were in a joke group and most of our Starting 11 played in the Champions League at that time and we've been in a massive slump ever since. On paper, there simply are not 24 teams better than us even if now we do not have as good players as we used to, we still should be qualifying for these tournaments, it's really a shame.
 
I also had tickets for Euro 2024 but I guess it is time to resell. Another tournament watching from the couch...

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5BL6CxMczW/?img_index=1
 
So many famous fencers commenting on this post, it's nice to see how they support each other! Poor Despina 

One of the worst days in my sporting life, I honestly have no words...

One of the worst days in my sporting life, I honestly have no words...

5-0! An amazing night, with a full stadium, I'm so happy I made a last minute decision to go to Athens for the night 

One of the worst days in my sporting life, I honestly have no words...

Wonderful to see Georgia make it 

beats in PSO to make the Euro Finals.

Miami R4 will also see the first meeting between two richest heiresses on tour - Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro

Apologies to @Henry_Leon for not being there yesterday for the show. I was traveling home from my vacation and was only able to get caught up now. What an amazing show it was. Huge congratulations to our hosts and deserving champions on their 3rd TISC victory!! @Henry_Leon@SteveParker@Gianlu33@Pablita

Well done to our other medalists @Wanderer and @Belle for a great result

Finally I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who voted for my entry at this contest. Really glad you enjoyed it

@catgamer@NikolaB@Cobi@Vic Liu@justony@Hipooo@maestro@Makedonas@Ruslan@Belle@Bohemia@Benolympique@vinipereira@Cinnamon Bun
Thanks so much to @dcro and @Glen for awarding your silver medal to the Irish song and to @Wumo and the Italian jury @Henry_Leon@SteveParker@Gianlu33@Pablita for awarding your 12 points to Ireland this year

Thanks as always for everyone for continuing to participate and make this show interesting and entertaining for us all
 

Is that the Sabalenka who consistently has said she doesn't support the war?
 
Also, not weird she eventually ends up losing big, considering her tragedy earlier this week.

WTA 1000 BNP Paribas Open | Indian Wells, United States 
 
Women’s Singles
1.  Iga Swiatek
2.  Maria Sakkari
3.  Martya Kostyuk
3.  Coco Gauff
 
Women’s Doubles
1.  Hsieh Su-Wei/Elise Mertens
2.  Storm Hunter/Katerina Siniakova
3.  Ellen Perez/Nicole Melichar-Martinez
3.  Asia Muhammad/Ena Shibahara
 
Full Results