Kravaritis: “Greece’s victories come from the clubs”

In 2018 Greek waterpolo is living a magical summer: after winning U20 World Championships last year, in a few weeks Greecetriumphed at the U18 World Championships in Szombathely and then at the U19 European Championships in Minsk. Greece dominated both the two competitions thanks to their teamwork but also to great players, that probably are bound to leave their mark also in senior waterpolo in the years to come: we mention the centerforward Papanikolaou and the 16 year old striker Aristidis Chalyvopoulos in Greece U18 team, the attackers Gkiouvetsis and Papanastasiou (who was signed by Croatian Jug in early summer) and the two centers Kakaris and Nikolaidis in the U19 squad. We tried to discover the secrets of Greek improvement in recent years interviewing with U18 Greece head coach Dimitri Kravaritis.

Coach Kravaritis, did you expect such a summer for Greek waterpolo, after the gold medal at the U20 World Championship a year ago?

Greece U18 national team triumphed in Szombathely

We expected good results at the U19 European Championships, given that we have great talents among the born ’99 and also players who already have some experience or who have even already played with the senior national team: for example Nikolaidis won the Champions League with Olympiacos and participated in the European Championships of Barcelona. However the U18 team surprised us in Szombathely, in a very open tournament, where at least 7-8 teams could have reached the gold medal.

Also Spain has made huge progress at a youth level, thanks to the system based on the Centros de Alto Rendimiento (CAR). Instead Greece took a different way.

In Greece we don’t centralize all the talents in one place, as Spain does. I believe that the results of recent years are due to the excellent work done in local clubs, as well as in the national team. In Greece club coaches work very well, also exploiting the know-how that has been donated to us by great foreign coaches over the last 20 years. I only mention two of them as example: Alessandro Campagna and Nikola Stamenic. That know-how has given us stability: we don’t always produce exciting players, but many good ones. In recent years we are reaping the rewards of the improvement of our coaches.

MVP in Szombathely Papanikolaou didn’t play the U19 EC because you already have two great centerforward as Kakaris and Nikolaidis, both born in 1999. What’s Greek secret to produce so many talented players in that position?

The U19 national team that won the European Championships in Minsk

It’s true, Papanikolaou didn’t go to Minsk because Nikolaidis and Kakaris are at a higher level, especially Kakaris. There are no secrets, those players all had a good body type and a natural talent, then they worked hard in their clubs, reaching the first team: Papanikolaou played in Glyfada, Nikolaidis in Olympiacos, where Kakaris will play next season (coming from Paleo Faliro, ed). To have big centerforward you have to insist on specific training at 2 meter line, as well as you need a separate training for goalkeepers, defenders or strikers. The only secret is the work: look at Aristidis Chalyvopoulos (16 years old attacker who participated in both U18 WC and U19 EC, ed). Probably next season he will start to play few minutes with Olympiacos first team, but he has a very long road ahead to become a real player.

Would it be an exaggeration to say that Greece will have a brilliant future and that the Olympic medal you’re chasing from long time will finally arrive in Tokyo 2020 or Paris 2024?

The Olympic medal is the great dream of Greek waterpolo, but that target has little to do with the youth level victories: senior waterpolo is completely different. Some of the 2017 U20 world champions as Nikolaidis and Skoumpakis have started playing with Greece national team, but that step is not so natural or easy. Along with to technical and tactical skills, coaches have to teach other stuff, like the right attitude or teamwork. If the Olympic medal will finally come, it will be the result of the work not only of the players or the Greece head coach, but of all the club coaches and of the entire Greek waterpolo movement.