2021 LITHUANIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, December 16th – Saturday, December 18th
- Klaipeda, Lithuania
- SCM (25m)
- Results
The 2021 Lithuanian Short Course Championships kicked off yesterday in Klaipeda and attendees were treated to seeing an icon dive back in after a long break.
2012 Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte announced her retirement from competitive swimming in May of 2019 at the age of 22. However, the now-24-year-old is competing this weekend in several events.
Meilutyte contested the women’s 100m breaststroke yesterday where she took the win handily in a mark of 1:05.23. After landing lane 4 in the morning heats with a time of 1:07.53, the ace split 30.50/34.73 to capture the first gold of her comeback.
The former Plymouth Leander athlete also raced the 50m fly, finishing runner-up in 26.69, just .07 outside of her lifetime best.
This morning on day 2, Meilutyte topped the women’s 50m breaststroke heats, producing a time of 30.35 before dropping that down to an impressive 29.33 to grab the gold.
Just for perspective, Meilutyte owns lifetime bests of 28.81 in the 50m breast from 2014 and 1:02.36 in the 100m breast. The latter performance stands as the current short course World Record in the event. She produced the mark in 2013 although Jamaican Alia Atkinson has since matched it on two occasions to share the WR designation.
Meiltutye hasn’t raced since 2018 and, at this point, it’s unclear what Meiluttye’s intentions are in terms of a carer resurgence.
According to Lithuanian media, Meilutyte says, “I haven’t made a decision to continue my career, but it’s always fun to swim. I just wanted to see if there was still a desire to compete.”
Meilutyte’s 100m breaststroke
Es sorprendente, me gusta la actitud de Ruta. Decidió alejarse de la natación por motivos de salud emocional y pues el descanso es muy bueno para todo deportista. Pense que nunca mas la vería en el agua. Aunque soy de sudamerica me encanta y soy muy seguidor de ella la tengo hasta como fondo de pantalla en mi teléfono. Me llena de alegria y de mucha satisfacción verla otra vez vamos ruta eres la mejor del mundo. Te adoro…
Is it 18 months she needs to be back in the drug testing pool? Would Lith nationals not mean that she would have had to re-enter anyway? 100% interest only in the process zero shade
It’s 6 months and if she removed herself from the testing pool her ban would’ve been paused so I doubt she did that.
How is she so young, it is astonishing
“Oh you know, just for funzies”: Swims faster than the time to win gold at Worlds in the 50 breast.
Welcome back, Ruta!
Legend.
the original lydia jacoby
Except Ruta was seeded first for finals.
Ruta : “I haven’t made a decision to continue my career”
29.30, faster than the world champion
Not bad for a swammer. What’s the master’s WR?
She’s younger than Lilly King lol
She’s 2 days younger than Ledecky too
She’s too young for Masters WRs. They don’t recognize WRs until the 25-29 age group.
Just goes to show how young she broke out onto the scene.
Her reaction time off the blocks is phenomenal!! One the quickest in the entire sport, men or women.
She is on the shortlist of the best female starters ever. The only other I can really think of would be Kromo.
she is on the list of short elite swimmers thats true
5’8″ is hardly short for a female, even in swimming.