Rūta Meilutytė is a swimmer who has competed for Lithuania. She competed at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Meilutyte arrived at her first Olympics in 2012 as the youngest swimmer of the team (aged 15). She became Lithuania's first-ever Olympic champion in swimming under its own banner when she won the gold medal in the women's 100 metres breaststroke. Meilutyte continued her swimming success a year later by setting a new world record with a time of 1:04.35 in her signature race at the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. She also added two gold medals to her career hardware at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
At Rio de Janeiro 2016, Meilutyte entered her second Games as the defending champion and a medal favorite in the 100 metres breaststroke but she finished seventh in the final.
In May 2019, Meilutyte served a 24-month suspension for anti-doping rule violations between April 2018 and March 2019, abruptly ending her swimming career. Five days later, Swimming World Magazine officially called her career as permanently over, with no prospects of ever returning to competition, and dubbed her actions the Fall of an Olympic Champion.[1] NBC Sports propagated the same sentiment, including that she was a "shock Olympic swimming champion".[2]
After facing a two-year suspension, Meilutyte returned to competitive swimming at the end of the 2021 season.
Olympic Results[]
Year | Event | Rank |
---|---|---|
2012 | Women's 50m freestyle | 26th |
Women's 100m freestyle | 29th | |
Women's 100m breaststroke | ||
2016 | Women's 100m breaststroke | 7th |
2012[]
Discipline | Round | Time | |
---|---|---|---|
50 metres freestyle | Heats | 25.55 | NR |
Semifinal | Did not advance | ||
Final | |||
100 metres freestyle | Heats | 56.33 | |
Semifinal | Did not advance | ||
Final | |||
100 metres breaststroke | Heats | 1:05.56 | NR |
Semifinal | 1:05.21 | AR | |
Final | 1:05.47 |
2016[]
Discipline | Round | Time |
---|---|---|
100 metres breaststroke | Heats | 1:06.35 |
Semifinal | 1:06.44 | |
Final | 1:07.32 |
References[]
- ↑ "Ruta Meilutyte: A Look Back at the Rise and Fall of an Olympic Champion", Swimming World Magazine, 26 May 2019. Retrieved on 19 August 2023.
- ↑ "Ruta Meilutyte, shock Olympic swimming champion, retires at age 22", NBC Sports, 26 May 2019. Retrieved on 19 August 2023.