Decade Review: Mediocre decade for Greece at the Olympics

AGONAsport’s “Decade in review” series continues with Andrew Stamas looking back on Greece’s Olympic participation over the last ten years.

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The decade began with the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Thanasis Tsakiris, a 45-year-old biathlete and cross-country skier from Drama who was competing in his fifth and final Olympics, was chosen to be Greece’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony. Greece sent a total of seven athletes to Vancouver, competing in three sports (alpine skiing, biathlon, and cross-country skiing). Alpine skier Vassilis Dimitriadis placed 33rd in the men’s slalom, which was Greece’s highest placing in Vancouver in any event.

Two-time Olympic taekwondo silver medalist Alexandros Nikolaidis was chosen to be the Greek flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Greece sent a team of 103 athletes to London, competing in 19 different sports. This was the smallest Greek Summer Olympic team since 1992, and Greece failed to qualify a boxer for the first time since the 1980 Games. This was the first time Greece failed to qualify a tennis player after tennis was reinstated an Olympic sport in 1984. This was also the first time since 1908 that no Greek male wrestler managed to qualify for the Summer Olympics, though Maria Prevolaraki represented Greece in the women’s 55 kg event. Additionally, 2012 marked the first time that Greece failed to qualify a female weightlifter since women’s weightlifting was added to the Olympics in 2000.

Despite having four reigning world champions in Olympic events, Greece only managed to win two bronze medals in London. Judoka Ilias Iliadis, a former Olympic gold medalist and two-time defending world champion, won bronze in the men’s 90 kg event despite being heavily favored to take gold. Rowers Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou won bronze in the women’s lightweight double sculls, where they had also been expected to take gold. Nevertheless, this marked the first Olympic medal in the history of Greek women’s rowing. Greece finished in 75th place on the overall medal table in London, which was Greece’s lowest position since the 1976 Summer Olympics, where Greece failed to win a single medal.

Swimmer Spyridon Gianniotis finished fourth in the men’s 10 km marathon swim, where he was the reigning world champion and favorite to win gold. In rowing, Greece placed fourth in the men’s four, an event which Greece won silver in at both the 2010 and 2011 World Championships. The Greek men’s four in London consisted of Ioannis Christou, Stergios Papachristos, Ioannis Tsilis, and Georgios Tziallas. Fencer Vassiliki Vougiouka finished fifth in the women’s sabre, falling 12-15 in the quarterfinals to the eventual gold medalist from South Korea. Vougiouka held an 8-3 lead in that quarterfinal, but then started struggling to breathe due to an injury which broke two of her front teeth. Finishing in sixth place in London were pole vaulter Konstantinos Filippidis, windsurfer Byron Kokkalanis, and gymnast Vasileios Tsolakidis (competing in the men’s parallel bars). Weightlifter David Kavelasvili had initially finished 13th in the men’s 94 kg, but was later promoted to sixth place after seven athletes ranked ahead of him were caught doping. Javelin thrower Spyridon Lebesis finished seventh in London. Greece also had two eighth place finishes at the 2012 Summer Olympics, with rowers Eleftherios Konsolas and Panagiotis Magdanis (in the men’s lightweight double sculls), and synchronized swimmers Evangelia Platanioti and Despoina Solomou (in the duet) coming in eighth place.

Heptathlete Sofia Ifadidou set a new Olympic record in the javelin event of the heptathlon in London. The 27-year-old from Veria recorded a throw of 56.96 meters, and finished 24th overall in the heptathlon. Racewalker Alexandros Papamichail set new Greek national records in both the 20 km walk (placing 15th with a time of 1:21:12) and the 50 km walk (placing 25th with a time of 3:49:56). Swimmer Kristel Vourna set a new national record in the women’s 100 m butterfly, finishing 12th overall with a time of 58.31 seconds. Four Greek athletes competed in their fifth and final Olympics in London, including water polo player Georgios Afroudakis, table tennis player Kalinikos Kreanga, hammer thrower Alexandros Papadimitriou and sailor Aimilios Papathanasiou. Two Greek athletes made their Olympic comebacks after last competing 12 years ago at Sydney 2000, as gymnast Vasiliki Millousi and windsurfer Angeliki Skarlatou made their returns. The two would also go on to compete at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, at ages 32 and 40 respectively.

Four Greek athletes were excluded from the Games before they began. High jump indoor world champion Dimitrios Chondrokoukis, javelin thrower Gervasios Filippidis, and steeplechase runner Irini Kokkinariou were all disqualified due to doping violations. Triple jumper Paraskevi Papachristou was kicked off the Greek team after posting a controversial tweet. Lastly, Greece also failed to qualify for three events where they were expected to contend for medals. Wrestler Ioannis Arzoumanidis, a bronze medalist at both the 2009 and 2010 World Championships, failed to qualify for the men’s 120 kg event. Greece’s men’s national basketball team surprisingly failed to qualify for the Games despite being ranked fourth in the world at the time. Finally, Greece’s women’s national water polo team failed to qualify after losing 7-9 to eventual silver medalist Spain in the qualifying tournament. This came as a shock for the Greek team after having an incredible four years, where they finished fourth at the 2009 World Championships, second at the 2010 European Championships, first at the 2011 World Championships, and second at the 2012 European Championships, while also finishing third in the World League in both 2010 and 2012.

Panagiota Tsakiri was selected as Greece’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, four years after her father carried the Greek flag at the opening ceremony in Vancouver. Greece sent seven athletes to Sochi, competing in four different sports (alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, skeleton, and ski jumping). Nico Polychronidis, an ethnic Greek born and raised in Germany, became Greece’s first athlete to ever compete in ski jumping at the Olympics. Alexandros Kefalas achieved Greece’s best result in Sochi, which was a 23rd place finish in the men’s skeleton.

Sailor Sofia Bekatorou was Greece’s flag bearer at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bekatorou, a former Olympic gold and bronze medalist, made history at 38 years of age by becoming Greece’s first female flag bearer in a Summer Olympic opening ceremony. This is particularly significant, as Greece walks out first in the opening ceremony, making it the first time ever that a female athlete led the Parade of Nations at the Summer Olympics. The Greek team in Rio was composed of 93 athletes across 15 sports, which happened to be Greece’s smallest Summer Olympic team since 1992. Greece failed to qualify a diver for the first Olympics since the 1988 Games. It was the first time since 1996 that Greece was not represented in canoeing and volleyball. Furthermore, 2016 was the first time that no Greek taekwondo practitioners qualified for the Games since it became an Olympic sport in 2000, which was disappointing as Greece won one gold and three silver medals in the sport between 2000 and 2008.

Greece fared much better in Rio than in London. Greece’s first medal was won by shooter Anna Korakaki, as she took bronze in the women’s 10 m air pistol. This was Greece’s first shooting medal since the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. The 20-year-old from Drama then won gold in the women’s 25 m pistol, which happened to be Greece’s first Olympic gold medal in any sport since 2004. Korakaki thus became the first Greek woman ever to win two medals at the same Olympics, and the first Greek overall to do so since 1912. Gymnast Eleftherios Petrounias then won gold in the men’s rings, which was Greece’s first gymnastics medal since 2004. Gianniotis, after the disappointment in 2012, won silver in the men’s 10 km marathon swim. This was the last race of the 36-year-old’s career, and the man from Kerkyra became the first Greek swimmer to win an Olympic medal since 1896. Sailors Pavlos Kagialis and Panagiotis Mantis got bronze in the men’s 470 event. Lastly, Ekaterini Stefanidi won gold in the women’s pole vault, which was Greece’s first track and field medal since 2004. With three gold, one silver, and two bronze medals, Greece finished 26th on the overall medal table. This was Greece’s fifth-best showing ever at the Olympics, after 1896, 2004, 1996, and 2000.

Greece had a fourth-place finish in rowing from Sofia Asoumanaki and Aikaterini Nikolaidou in the women’s double sculls, where the Greek duo was the youngest of the 13 teams in the entire event. In sailing, Kokkalanis finished fifth in windsurfing after having finished sixth four years earlier in London. Greece’s men’s national water polo team finished sixth in Rio, as did the Greek rowers in the men’s lightweight four, which included Spyridon Giannaros, Magdanis, Stefanos Ntouskos, and Ioannis Petrou. After finishing sixth in London, Filippidis came seventh in Rio in the men’s pole vault. In rowing, Greece’s men’s four finished eighth after having come fourth in London, with the only change on the team being Dionysios Angelopoulos replacing Papachristos. In the women’s triple jump, Papachristou finally made her Olympic debut after her controversial exclusion in 2012, coming in eighth place overall.

Three national records were set by Greeks at the Rio Olympics, with two in swimming and one in track and field. Swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev placed 20th in the men’s 100 m freestyle with a time of 48.68 seconds, and fellow swimmer Anna Ntountounaki was 17th in the women’s 100 m butterfly with a time of 58.27 records, as both broke national records. Long-distance runner Alexi Pappas set a new Greek national record in the women’s 10,000 m, clocking in at 31:36.16. Pappas, a Greek-American who began representing Greece internationally just a few months prior to the Rio Games, finished in 17th place overall. The most experienced athletes on this Greek team were Gianniotis and archer Evangelia Psarra, with each participating in their fifth Olympics. Additionally, Greece had three female marathon runners at the Games for the first time ever, and Ourania Rebouli, Sofia Riga, and Panagiota Vlachaki all finished the race in under three hours.

Similarly to London 2012 where four Greek athletes were excluded from the Games for various reasons, two Greek athletes were excluded from the Rio Games. Race walker Despina Zapounidou was set to compete in her third consecutive Olympics, but a technical error from the Hellenic Association of Amateur Athletics (Greece’s track and field governing body) was revealed after the qualification deadline. This made Zapounidou ineligible to compete despite training for over a year while under the impression that she had qualified for Rio back in June of 2015. Swimmer Theodora Giareni was disqualified from the Games after it was revealed on the day of the opening ceremony that she had failed a doping test. Pole vaulter Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou and high jumper Antonios Mastoras both had to miss the 2016 Olympics due to injuries, despite having qualified. Lastly, the Greek national teams in men’s basketball and women’s water polo once again failed to qualify for the Olympics. The men’s basketball team lost to Croatia in the qualifying tournament after playing with a depleted roster due to several key players being injured. The women’s water polo team fell on penalties in the qualification playoff to Russia, who then went on to win bronze in Rio.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, alpine skier Sophia Ralli had the honor of being Greece’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony. Greece sent just four athletes to Pyeongchang, competing in two sports (alpine skiing and cross-country skiing). This was the smallest team Greece had sent to the Winter Olympics since 1980. Ralli, a 29-year-old from Naousa, achieved Greece’s best result of the Games with a 44th place finish in the women’s slalom.

Overall, the 2010s were a decade full of both ups and downs for Greece at the Olympics. With just eight medals, this was the worst decade for Greece at the Olympics since the 1980s. However, this was the fourth-best decade for Greece ever at the Olympics, primarily because Greece only won 20 medals after 1896 and before 1992.

Aside from what has already been mentioned, the decline of Greek weightlifting was one of the biggest disappointments of the decade. Greece failed to win a single medal in the sport and only qualified two weightlifters in 2012 and 2016 combined. On the contrary, Greece won six medals in the sport in the 1990s, and another six in the 2000s. Additionally, another disappointment was the failure of the women’s national basketball team to qualify for the Olympics, despite being present at two of the three World Cups this past decade.

2010-2019’S GREEK OLYMPIC MEDALISTS:

GOLD:

Anna Korakaki - Rio 2016 - shooting - women’s 25 m pistol

Eleftherios Petrounias - Rio 2016 - gymnastics - men’s rings

Ekaterini Stefanidi - Rio 2016 - athletics (track and field) - women’s pole vault

SILVER:

Spyridon Gianniotis - Rio 2016 - swimming - men’s 10 km open water

BRONZE:

Ilias Iliadis - London 2012 - judo - men’s 90 kg

Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou - London 2012 - rowing - women’s lightweight double sculls

Anna Korakaki - Rio 2016 - shooting - women’s 10 m air pistol

Pavlos Kagialis and Panagiotis Mantis - Rio 2016 - sailing - men’s 470

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