A post on my Facebook newsfeed said it all, simply and beautifully today, comparing predictions made by a global financial “powerhouse” with the resilience of Greek athletes.
“The Greek team was expected to win zero (0) Olympic medals by a Goldman Sachs report in July. The Greek team won 6 medals, of which 3 were gold. An ancient habit of beating expectations.”
Beautifully put, Vasileios Tsianos. Beautifully put indeed.
Mr. Tsianos linked to a July 2016 report (link at end of story to full report) put out by Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research team comprised of 18 pages of predictions they shared with potential investors on how national teams would do in the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Greece wasn’t even on the list of predicted medals.
The authors of the report— Francesco Garzarelli, Kamakshya Trivedi, Alberto Ramos and Mark Ozerov— took into account a whole bunch of economic statistics, tabulations and numeric indicators to come up with their “predictions”— even taking a jab at Greece in the introduction, writing that “Starting something doesn’t mean you’ll finish well. Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics, has poor sporting performance relative to what its economic indicators suggest it could achieve.”
Through all of their powerful algorithms and computer-generated statistics, the authors failed to take into a single— and most important— factor.
The human spirit that seems to come out of Greeks in crisis.
As Mr. Tsianos put it— it’s “an ancient habit of beating expectations.”
Thank you to all of Greece’s athletes, who participated against all odds and with practically no support from their pathetic government, who made Greeks everywhere proud.
And to the Goldman Sachs investors who used this report to bet against Greece… tough luck.
Hopefully you’ll know better next time to never underestimate the Greek spirit of Katerina Stefanidi, Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis, Spyros Gianniotis, Eleftherios Petrounias and Anna Korakaki– and all of Greece’s Olympians, past and present who have fought and won– against all odds.
See the Goldman Sachs report here: olympic-games-report-goldman-sachs.
8 comments
My comments have nothing to do with nationalism or chauvinism .Just the bare facts . Greece finished 22nd out of 54 European countries , and most ahead of us have a much greater population .Take Turkey for example with a population 7 times as much as ours and bolstered by Jamaicans who sold their souls for the almighty buck , and won only 2 more than us .Countries from all over the world with huge populations , such as Mexico ( one fewer than us ) , Argentina ( 2 fewer than us |) , Egypt ( 3 fewer than us ) , India ( 4 fewer than us ), Portugal ,a country of a similar size and population with only one medal and of course the Albanian joke with NO medals at all . For all these reasons plus the fact that these young Greek athletes never really had the support of the state or sponsors they deserve our admiration and gratitude
Great job, Greek Team!!! We had faith in you, even if the modern day Oracles didn’t!
Dont forget that Goldman Sachs is one of the groups that helped put Greece’s economy to what it is today, their motto should be “Money Over People”!!!
After what these people did to my country with corrupt Greek politicians, they should be ashamed of even uttering the word “Greece” and especially underestimating and insulting the Greek spirit and determination… Ζήτω η Ελλάδα…
You cannot plug in “Greek Spirit” in your spreadsheets to predict that Greeks would get 0 medals in the Rio olympics… Who the hell do you think you are… I would demote you to cover little league games…
Francesco Garzarelli, Kamakshya Trivedi, Alberto Ramos and Mark Ozerov must have pulled their figures (and preditictions) out of their asses.
QUOTE ” MONEY OVER PEOPLE” ( GOLDMAN SACHS}
BUT NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A GREEK…
IT IS ONLY TIME WHEN THE GREEKS WILL TAKE REVENGE….
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
These clowns removed all doubt.
Ζητώ Ελλάς!