LONDON, (Reuters) – At just 15, schoolgirl Ruta Meilutyte showed nerves of steel as she withstood a delayed start that rattled experienced Olympians to claim Lithuania’s first ever swimming medal and become the one of the youngest women to win the Olympic title.
Meilutyte, who set a European record in qualifying for yesterday’s race, was ahead from the start, racing neck and neck with American world champion Rebecca Soni in a desperate struggle that had the crowd roaring, before getting her hands on the wall first.
Removing her green cap to reveal long blond hair, only then did she let herself get caught in the moment, holding her hand to her mouth as she surveyed the scoreboard. She later sobbed uncontrollably as she stepped on the podium.
“I can’t believe it. It is too much for me,” she said after receiving her medal, before being whisked away from the waiting media.
“It was hard and difficult. At the moment I can’t speak too much, but it means a lot to me and I’m so proud.”
Meilutyte became the first swimmer to win an Olympic medal competing under the Lithuania flag, although she was not the first from the Baltic state.
In 1980, at the Moscow Olympics, Lina Kaciusyte became Lithuania’s first champion when she won the 200m breaststroke, competing for the Soviet Union.
Rebecca Soni, who had already come second in the event in Beijing four years ago, won silver again, securing her fourth medal. The bronze went to Japanese Olympic debutant Satomi Suzuki.
Meilutyte’s victory, watched from the stands by her father and grandmother, provoked an outpouring of national pride in the small Baltic state of three million people, recovering from one of the deepest recessions in the European Union and still facing high unemployment and emigration rates.
“Thank you, Ruta, for allowing us to be proud to be Lithuanians, to allow us to forget all crisis and other hardships,” Lithuanian national television’s commentator said.
