The image of her crying in disbelief with her palm covering half of her face after storming to the gold medal in the 100m breaststroke at the London Olympics was a favourite with video editors round the world when it came to creating a reel of the Games’ best moments.
It was a moment that captured the raw emotions of the then 15-year-old’s Ruta Meilutyte, who stunned the whole world – including herself – by beating Rebecca Soni in the tightest of finishes. Everyone who has witnessed that moment remembers it vividly, because it epitomised what the Olympics are all about.
The young teenage Lithuanian lost her mother to an accident at age four before her father, Saulius, relocated to Plymouth in England to earn some money.
Ruta eventually joined him in the UK to attend a special school after he had realised she had a rare gift for swimming. Coach Jon Ruud took her under his wing at Plymouth College, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Meilutyte entered the 100m breaststroke event in London ranked 10th and left the pool with a gold medal.
A year later, the now 16-year-old can not only call herself an Olympic and world champion after her recent display in Barcelona, but also the holder of two world records in the 50m and 100m, although she only took gold in the latter and had to settle for silver in the 50m final.
Naturally that runner-up finish didn’t sit well with her, but Meilutyte, who seems wise well beyond her years, says she’s learnt a lot from that experience.
“I came second in the 50m breaststroke and I was little bit disappointed but then I learnt that not everything goes the way you want it to go and you have to accept that and move on,” the soft-spoken Meilutyte told Sport360° at the ongoing World Junior Swimming Championships in Dubai. “I’ve gained a lot of experiences and I’m grateful for that.”
After Barcelona, she only took three days off before she went to Cyprus to prep for Dubai. Her presence at the Junior Worlds here was unexpected considering she had alr-eady outdone herself on the senior level and deserved a break following a long season.
But Meilutyte chose to come to the Emirates, to experiment with more events and have one last hurrah before taking a well-earned break. “It’s not about the medals, it’s more about proving myself and seeing what I’m capable of,” she says of her goals in Dubai.
Swimming three races a night rather than three in an entire competition, Meilutyte says she’s been having a blast so far at the Hamdan pool, breaking records and winning races. Some teenage stars may quickly develop into divas and with Meilutyte’s rock star status in Lithuania, one would think the attention might have got to her head. But the truth is far from that.
The good-natured youngster is unassuming and constantly has a smile on her face. She likes to help out her family any way she can and a lot of the earnings she makes from the sponsorship deals that came knocking at her door after London are sent back to Lithuania.
When asked how she’s become so mature at such a young age, she says: “I think it’s just the way I grew up. The circumstances I went through made me more mature than some other people my age. “I grew up with two brothers and I’ve always been surrounded by people who are older than me. I always went to the Olympics and senior level swimming at the World Championships and I train a lot of the time with senior guys. So I’m pretty used to that.”
That maturity has also helped her deal with the pressure of going to the Worlds as the one to beat following her Olympic triumph. “Everyone is talking about pressure and stuff but it wasn’t really too bad to be honest,” she says of her experience in the Catalan city.
“I think most of the swimmers are in the same boat when you go to really high level competitions such as the World Championships. There are so many good swimmers. Everyone feels a little bit of pressure but it’s a lot easier when you’ve got people experiencing the same thing with you.”
Meilutyte clearly draws lots of motivation from her surroundings and with a wealth of top breaststroke swimmers to compete against, she’s continuously being pushed to improve. The world record the Lithuanian broke in the 50m was set by Russia’s Yuliya Efimova only hours earlier. She ended up losing in the final to Efimova but insists that she’s relishing the challenge.
Meilutyte herself is providing motivation not just to her rivals but to her fellow Lithuanian swimmers, who now have a role model to emulate in the pool. In Dubai, she was the first to congratulate her countryman Danas Rapsys after winning silver in the 100m backstroke.
“I feel better that she’s here. She’s motivating me,” Rapsys said. “She’s having a huge impact on Lithuania. When she got all those golds and world records, swimming became a lot bigger in Lithuania. All of a sudden everyone’s swimming back home and that’s because of her. Which is a great thing.”
Meilutyte’s coach Ruud says his student takes great pride in being an ambassador for Lithuania. “She’s always been ahead of her years in terms of maturity and her outlook on life,” said Ruud, poolside at the Hamdan Sports Complex. “A lot of that is in her upbringing and the sense of responsibility she has for her family, for her nation and for the sport of swimming within her country.
“She realises the opportunity that she has as an ambassador and how important that is. She carries that responsibility on her shoulders all of the time and she doesn’t see that as a problem… she sees it as an honour.”
Three years from now, Meilutyte says she sees herself representing Lithuania again at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Ruud says that moments after she won in London, she said she didn’t want that medal to be her last. It most probably won’t be.
Ruta’s route to the top
100m breaststroke gold, London, July 2012 Despite a delay of several minutes because of the starting gun malfunctioning, she kept her nerves and won in 1:05.47 ahead of USA’s Rebecca Soni.
100m breaststroke records, Istanbul, Dec 2012 Competing in the final of her last of four events, Ruta powered to her second gold in Turkey with a time of 1:03.52, breaking the national Lithuanian swimming record, European record and Championship record (short-course).
100m breaststroke world record, Barcelona, July ‘13 Made history in the 100m breaststroke semi-finals with a blistering time of 1:04.35, the first Lithuanian to break a swimming record since their Independence in 1990.
50m breaststroke world record, Barcelona, Aug ‘13 Five days after clinching gold in that 100m final, Ruta set another world mark, previously held by Yuliya Efimova, this time in the 50m. Ruta earned it by clocking 29.48s in the semi-finals. Her joy was short-lived though, as she lost the gold in the finals.
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