The certainty that hosting it Women’s Eurobasket in 2025 Greece will be able to boost the sport and bring more girls to it, expressed the Artemis Spanou. The captain of the national team spoke to EOK WebRadio:
On her feelings upon learning that Greece will host EuroBasket 2025: “When I found out I was very happy. The truth is that we were told that we were trying to get it, but it was very difficult. We finally made it, so I was very happy. As I’ve said before, a weight is gone for the qualifiers with whether we pass or not. We know we will definitely be there in 2025.”
On what this event means for women’s basketball: “It gives huge motivation individually and as a team. It is very important that such an event takes place in our country after so many years. We want to be able to bring people to the court, girls to watch basketball, start basketball and have more kids. It is important for many things and especially for women’s basketball, which in our country does not have the biggest advertisement and the biggest love from people to see it. It will certainly be important in everything.”
On whether this event will play a role in the development of women’s basketball in Greece: “Sure, but in order to get to the point of doing something positive with all of this there needs to be a plan and planning, which I believe the EEC has already started. We will also have some things announced in a few days, so definitely everyone will be working at 100% for these 2 years. It is also a responsibility for us athletes to work 100% in our basketball part, so that we can have a good event. We showed from this year’s event that we can be at this level, so we want to do something better and please ourselves and our country.”
For the “windows” group with the three Eurobasket co-organizers (Czech Republic, Germany, Italy): “For sure this group will be a difficult group. The Czech Republic and Germany reached the 8th place, Italy we know from the friendlies that they are not an easy opponent. We have also shown that we can do things, so it will definitely be a good test for us, both training-wise and mentally to prepare us for the summer of 2025.”
On how she was received in Bourges: “They have welcomed me very well, they are one of the most organized groups I have been in my career. It seems to be a basketball team and a basketball town. Even in the tournaments we have played, where they have been held far from our stadium, people have come from Bourges. So far I have nothing negative to say.”
For this year’s Bourgeois goals: “The goals are high and it can be seen from the way the training is done, which is very hard, from the words of the coach with how he wants us to play and even the details, where the team has brought in sports psychologists, masseurs and everything else so that that all female athletes have what they need. We definitely want to win titles. It is not easy, but we start from now with the preparation, so that at the end of the year we will be better than the opponent and we will be able to win these games”.
Source: Sport Fm
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