But it does not have an international ice rink, which is a handicap for its ice hockey team.
Greece is one of the six competing teams at the third division world championships starting at the Dunedin Ice Stadium tomorrow.
"It is very hard for us," coach Mirel Dumitrake told the Otago Daily Times after team training in Dunedin yesterday.
"We had two camps in the Czech Republic to prepare for the championships.
"It is hard for us to lift our standard because we don't have regular competition in good facilities."
The lack of regular international competition is also a problem for Greece.
Since last year's world championships, it has had only two friendlies, against the Czech Republic.
It lost the first one 8-2 but improved for the second game and only lost 6-4.
The best player in the Greek team is Nikos Papadopoulos, who was born in the Czech Republic.
The other stars are Orestis Tilios and Lazaros Efkarpidis.
Ice hockey was first played in Greece in 1986 but the international team has not been able to get out of the third division.
It finished fifth in Luxembourg last year and has no great expectations of winning the world championships to gain promotion to second division.
Greece only has 120 players and its six senior teams play a competition on inferior surfaces.
Dumitrake said there were plans to build an international ice stadium in Athens but funding and government approval were needed.
