Lithuanian swimmer Ruta Meilutite is the only athlete in the world who first won the adult Olympic Games, and then became the champion of youth! In addition, in the history of her country, she is the only winner of the Olympic medal in swimming. In Lithuania, Ruta is called the Golden Fish and is considered a national hero. About the life and sports career of a swimmer, this article.
Biography
Ruta Meilutite was born in Lithuanian Kaunas on March 19, 1997. In 2001, when the girl was four years old, her mother, Ingrida, was tragically killed in a traffic accident. After that, Papa Ruta Saulius Mailutis went to the UK, to the city of Plymouth, where he began to work as a nurse.
The girl and her two older brothers Mindaugas and Margiris were brought up with their grandmother in the village. Ruta Meilutite started swimming at the age of five, her first coach was Giedrius Martinionis. The future champion from early childhood had excellent physical endurance: she chopped firewood with her brothers and climbed trees.
When the girl was twelve, dad took her to his Plymouth. He saw his daughter's talent as a swimmer and gave her to one of the leading English swimming clubs Plymouth Leander. Ruth's trainer was John Rood. From that moment, she began to progress in swimming, and in 2011 she already won two victories at the European Youth Olympic Festival.
2012 Olympics
At the Games in London, the fifteen-year-old Ruta Meilutite was a debutante. She first performed at competitions of this level. And unexpectedly for everyone she won a gold medal! Already in the preliminary race in the 100 meters breaststroke, the young swimmer surprised the judges: she became the first and set a Lithuanian record. Then followed the victory in the semifinals with a European record. In the decisive swim, the rivals also could not compete with Ruta Meilutite: she took first place and became the new national hero!
After OI
After the victory in London, the girl was recognized as the best athlete of the country and awarded the Order of Merit to Lithuania. In September 2013, Ruta met with Dalia Grybauskaite, the President of Lithuania, who handed her a symbolic cup and a jar of honey from her own apiary.
Subsequently, the swimmer several times improved the record of Europe and her personal. At the world championships in Barcelona in 2013, the girl updated the world record and won two awards at once - gold at a distance of one hundred meters breaststroke and silver at a fifty-meter breaststroke.
Failure in Rio
After a series of confident victories, Ruta Meilutite went to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. A nineteen-year-old athlete was considered the leader of the Lithuanian national team and the first hope of the nation. The head of the country, Dalia Gribauskaite, personally arrived in Brazil to watch the performance of the Golden Fish. But this time it did not end so triumphantly. The swimmer barely made it to the finals of the 100-meter breaststroke and overcame the once-winning distance with a result three seconds worse than in 2012. As a result, the pride of the nation took only seventh place.
Despite the unsuccessful performance, in Lithuania no one was evil against young Ruta. On the contrary, she was supported by fans, teammates, musicians, bloggers, politicians, and even the president. But the trainer of the athlete John Ore hit a wave of criticism. As a result, the mentor and the ward had to leave. Rood left to work in the USA, and Meilutite returned from England to Lithuania.
Rebirth
Then the swimmer had a break in the competition. They even said that she was considering leaving sports forever. After the failure in Rio and until the end of 2016, Ruta Meilutite did not win any awards. With a new Lithuanian mentor, she trained in her native Kaunas and measuredly worked on the mistakes. And then she won the national championship.
In 2017, the Goldfish became the fourth at the World Championships, and at the European Championships in Short Water brought two gold medals to the national team. In 2018, at the European Championship in Glasgow, Ruta took second place at a distance of one hundred meters breaststroke. In the same year, at the world championship in short water in Hangzhou, she won silver at the fifty-meter mark.
Specialists attribute the problems of Mailutite to a change in physiology and the transformation from girl to woman. In breaststroke it often happens that a child shows fantastic results, and then disappears into nowhere. But Ruta does not give up and continues to go to new victories. Now the swimmer is not dreaming of records, but pragmatically wants to prove her professional suitability.