Rūta Meilutytė, the most titled swimmer of the country, visited the open Lithuanian swimming championship in the 25 m pool held at the LSC sports complex "Druskininkai".
According to her individual plan, the 26-year-old from Kaunas, who is preparing for the new competition season together with her coach Tadus Duškinas, not only awarded the winners of the women's and men's team relays 4 x 100 m freestyle at the championship on Saturday evening, but also received the award herself.
The statuette of the best 2022 LEN - "European Aquatics" athlete was presented to the swimmer by the participant of three Olympic Games, the president of the LTU Aquatics Association, Saulius Binevičius.
Let us remind you that last year R. Meilutytė became the European and world champion, swimming 50 m breaststroke. She also won bronze medals in the 100m breaststroke in Budapest and Rome, and the Lithuanian ended the year by breaking the world record and winning the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne.
Along with R. Meilutyte, Italian Benedetta Pilato, Swedish Sarah Sjöström and Dutch Marrit Steenbergen applied for this nomination.
All nominees were selected based on their achievements in 2022. season in the LEN and World Aquatics competitions, and the award winners were determined by the votes of the public (30%) and LEN members and the technical committee (70%).
This year's season went well for Lithuania. R.Meilutytė successfully fulfilled the Olympic standard for 100 m breaststroke, and she returned from the most important competition - the world championship in Fukuoka - with two gold medals (50 and 100 m breaststroke) and improved the world record in the 50 m breaststroke event.
In the prestigious Lithuanian sports awards organized by the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee, the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, this year R. Meilutytė is again nominated in the "Sportswoman of the Year" category.
