I thought it would be a cool idea for people to post some interesting facts/figures about their country’s delegations. I’ll start with Greece
By the numbers:
29th Summer Olympic appearance (tied for most of all-time)
83 = athletes in Tokyo (smallest team since Barcelona 1992. We had 93 in Rio 2016)
46 = male athletes in Tokyo (56 in Rio 2016)
37 = female athletes in Tokyo (same amount as Rio 2016)
17 = sports in Tokyo (15 in 2016, 19 in 2012, 22 in 2008)
40 = Olympic debutants in Tokyo
43 = former Olympians in Tokyo
4 = mothers in Tokyo (Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou-pole vault, Paraskevi Papachristou-triple jump, Evangelia Psarra-archery, Emilia Tsoulfa-sailing)
18 = athletes born in 2000 or later
32 = age of oldest Olympic debutant (Polychronis Tzortzakis-cycling)
8 = former Youth Olympics participants
6 = most Olympic appearances (Evangelia Psarra-archery)
4 = former Olympic gold medalists (Anna Korakaki-shooting, Eleftherios Petrounias-gymnastics, Ekaterini Stefanidi-athletics, Emilia Tsoulfa-sailing)
6 = former Olympic medalists (same as above +Pavlos Kagialis-sailing, Panagiotis Mantis-sailing)
Former Olympians who were not in Rio:
Periklis Ilias (cycling - 2012, 2020)
Nikolaos Mavrommatis (shooting - 2012, 2020)
Dimitrios Tsiamis (athletics - 2008, 2020)
Emilia Tsoulfa (sailing - 1996, 2000, 2004, 2020)
Three youngest Olympians:
1. Krystalenia Gialama (artistic swimming) - 16 years, 11 months
2. Eleni Fragkaki (artistic swimming) - 17 years, 5 months
3. Andriana Misikevych (artistic swimming) - 18 years, 4 months
Three oldest Olympians:
1. Emilia Tsoulfa (sailing) - 48 years, 2 months
2. Evangelia Psarra (archery) - 47 years, 1 month
3. Panagiotis Gionis (table tennis) - 41 years, 6 months
Siblings:
1. Anneta Kyridou (rowing) and Maria Kyridou (rowing)
2. Stamatia Scarvelis (athletics) and Nicholas Scarvelis (athletics, 2016)
3. Christos Volikakis (cycling) and Zafeiris Volikakis (cycling, 2012)
*Those in italics represented Greece but are not in Tokyo.
Parents/Children:
1. Maria Sakkari (tennis) and Angeliki Kanellopoulou (tennis, 1984)
2. Kristian Gkolomeev (swimming) and Tsvetan Gkolomeev (swimming, 1980 and 1988)
*Those in italics represented Greece but are not in Tokyo.
Top cities with the most 2020 Olympians:
1. Athens - too many to count
2. Chania, Crete - 7
3. Thessaloniki, Macedonia - 6
4. Karditsa, Thessaly - 4
5. Heraklion, Crete - 3
*First time since 1996 that no athletes from Corfu (Kerkyra) island are going to the Olympics, and first time since 2000 that no athletes from Kastoria, Macedonia and Veria, Macedonia are going to the Olympics.
Athletes born in other countries:
Kristian Gkolomeev (swimming) - His family moved to Greece when he was an infant and he lived in Greece his entire life
Alexios Ntanatsidis (judo) - Both of his parents are Greeks and he lived in Greece from a very young age
Stamatia Scarvelis (athletics) - Both of her parents are Greeks
Athletes from Greece but representing other countries:
Kristina Alvertsian (athletics)
Anna-Maria Alexandri (artistic swimming), Eirini Alexandri (artistic swimming)
Sideris Tasiadis (canoeing) [okay he is different from the others because he lived most of his life in Germany but he did live in Greece for 10 years during his childhood so we’ll count him]
Afrodite Zegers [nee Kyranakou] (sailing)
Stephania Haralabidis (water polo)
*All used to compete for Greece except for Tasiadis
Athletes that train in Greece but represent other countries:
Nikol Merizaj (swimming)
Kristina Alvertsian (athletics)
Kalia Antoniou (swimming), Nikolaos Antoniou (swimming)
Marija Vukovic (athletics)
*I didn’t include people who play for Greek clubs in team sports because in water polo for example there would be so many.
Biggest teams by sport:
Athletics: 20 in 15 events
Water Polo: 13 in 1 event
Swimming: 12 in 13 events
Artistic Swimming: 9 in 2 events
Sailing: 8 in 6 events
Biggest changes in team size compared to Rio:
(-)8: Gymnastics
(+)7: Artistic Swimming
(-)6: Rowing
(-)5: Athletics
Events where more than one athlete/team per country is allowed to participate, and the country has reached the maximum quotas:
Athletics: women’s 20 km walk (3), women’s pole vault (3)
Swimming: men's 200 m freestyle (2), men's 400 m freestyle (2), men’s 800 m freestyle (2), men’s 200 m individual medley (2)
First time qualifying in…
Rowing women’s pair EVER
Swimming mixed relay EVER (new event)
Swimming men’s 800 m freestyle EVER (new event)
Tennis mixed doubles EVER
Artistic swimming team since 2004
Men’s tennis since 2004
Sailing women’s 470 since 2004
Athletics women’s 100 m since 2000
Rowing women’s single sculls since 1996
First time not qualifying in…
Heptathlon since 1996
Shot put since 1996
Marathon since 1992
High jump since 1988
Rhythmic gymnastics since 1984
Other interesting facts:
-In 2004 (8 and 8), 2008 (2 and 2), 2012 (1 and 1) and 2016 (3 and 3), each time Greece had the same amount of men’s medals as women’s medals. It will be interesting to see if that trend will continue this time, or if one gender will do better than the other in Tokyo.
-Our long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou was just 18 in Rio, and he was the youngest of the 103 members of the Greek Olympic team in 2016. Now he is not the youngest, but he is the only member of the Greek Olympic team that actually speaks Japanese. He claims to understand everything but says his speaking isn't perfect although he can converse in Japanese. He learned the language because he is a big fan of Japanese anime. I bet not too many countries can say they have athletes going to Tokyo who can actually speak Japanese, especially someone who is one of their biggest hopes to win gold as Tentoglou is for us.
-This is our 11th consecutive Olympic participation in men's water polo. We've never had more than two consecutive participations in any other team sport.
-I haven't seen any official lists yet, but it is likely that Greece will have the youngest teams of all countries in the sports of artistic swimming and rowing (based on average age of all athletes per NOC in these two sports).
Feel free to add any other interesting facts about your countries’ teams!