SPORTIN LITHUANIA

Lithuanians practice over 100 branches of sport. Basketball is the most popular sport, followed by football and track-and-field athletics. Apart from these, Lithuanians are also interested in car-racing and boxing and enjoy watching figure skating, sport dancing, cycling, and contests between promising Lithuanian tennis-players and competitors from other countries.

BASKETBALL

Basketball is called the second religion in Lithuania. As you travel within Lithuania, you will notice how many basketball backboards and playing-fields we have, from professional to self-made.

Basketball is also Number 1 sport in Lithuania by the number of medals won at Summer Olympic Games. Most of them are bronze, but we have also won silver and gold. Victories by the Lithuanian National Basketball Team always turn into a nationwide festival – we pour into streets and celebrate until dawn.

Most prominent basketball-players: Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Arvydas Sabonis, Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, Artūras Karnišovas, Šarūnas Jasikevičius

FOOTBALL

Football, the most popular sport in the world. The golden age for football in Lithuania was the 1980s. Our present football clubs cannot boast impressive global achievements yet. The most promising players play for foreign clubs.

MOST PROMINENT FOOTBALL-PLAYERS Edgaras Jankauskas; Deividas Šemberas; Deividas Česnauskis

TRACK AND FIELD

This is Number Two sport in Lithuania in terms of medals won at Summer Olympics and Number Three in terms of popularity.

The best Lithuanian track-and-field athlete of all times is a discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna. He is a twice Olympic champion, also Olympic bronze winner, twice world champion and European champion. In 2007, Alekna became the ninth sportsman of the world to receive a title of UNESCO Champion for Sport.

MOST PROMINENT LITHUANIAN SPORTSMEN

Lithuanian discus throwing legend Virgilijus Alekna, twice Olympic gold medallist.

Our best rowers: Egidijus Balčiūnas (left) and Alvydas Duonėla (right).

Despite the meaning of his name (armless), the best tennis player of Lithuania Ričardas Berankis

Olympic champion Daina Gudzinevičiūtė after the most important shot in her life.

Swimmer Vytautas Janušaitis

For pentathlon master Edvinas Krungolcas, an épée is more than a sports attribute: it is a symbol of courtesy

World cycling champion Simona Krupeckaitė

The best of all time couple of skate dancers of Lithuania: Povilas Vanagas and Margarita Drobiazko

Climber Vladas Vitkauskas who hoisted the Lithuanian tricolour flag on the most challenging

summits of all the continents

The strongest man on the planet Žydrūnas Savickas

World record holder Austra Skujytė

World and European pentathlon champion Andrejus Zadneprovskis

SPORT DANCE

Our sport dancing school is especially strong – our dance-sport team Žuvėdra (Eng. seagull), always going for the highest awards across the world, is a six times world champion and seven times European champion.

Multiple World and European Champion in dance sport: Žuvėdra

LITHUANIA IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES

For the first time Lithuania participated in the Olympic Games in 1924 in Paris.

The restoration of Lithuania‘s independence in 1990 our sportsmen participated in four summer and four winter Olympic Games. Participation in all the summer Olympic Games was successful for our sportsmen: they won 49 medals (4 gold medals, 4 silver medals and 41 bronze medal).

Boxer Danas Pozniakas was the first Lithuanian sportsman, Olympic Champion, who won the gold medal at the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968

Romas Ubartas - gold medalist of discus throw (the Barcelona Olympic Games, 1992).

Virgilijus Alekna - two-time Olympic champion in discus throw event finish (the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the Athens Olympic Games, 2004).

Daina Gudzinevičiūtė - gold medal winner in shooting (ditch area) event finish (Sydney Olympic Games, 2000).

Mindaugas Mizgaitis - Lithuania's first Olympic wrestling history of the prize (the Beijing Olympic Games (bronze), 2008).

The history of the participation of Lithuania‘s sportsmen in the Olympic Games records four sportsmen who became Olympic Champions twice: 

basketballer Angelė Rupšienė, handballer Aldona Česaitytė-Nenėnienė,cyclist Gintautas Umaras,discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna.

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