The first Lithuanian medal at the Paris Olympic Games. On Saturday morning, rower Viktorija Senkutė won a bronze medal in the single row competition. The 28-year-old Lithuanian opened a new page in the country's rowing history - she became the first single woman to reach the A final at the Olympic Games, and now she is triumphant by winning a medal.
The Vere-sur-Marne canal near Paris was still successful for Lithuania on the very last day, when the start for the representatives of academic rowing takes place. The Lithuanian rower who stood at the starting line together with the titled competitors was the biggest sensation of this competition. Because even before the start, the experts named highly titled rivals as favorites.
These are the single four-person Olympic champion and the winner of the last two world championships in the singles competition from the Netherlands, Karolien Florijn, and the only Tokyo Olympic champion Emma Twigg from New Zealand, who beat V. Senkutė in the previous stages at the Paris Games.
As soon as the A final started, they justified their status as favorites, and the Lithuanian was in fifth place even halfway through the distance, but she had a particularly strong finish - with powerful sprints, just before the finish line, she took third place, covering the distance in 7:20.85 minutes.
"It still seems like I'm dreaming," said the 28-year-old Olympic medalist with joy. Speaking about the competition plan, the rower said that she managed to fulfill it to the maximum, and her teammates helped her prepare for it.
"I had a clear plan. The coach said before leaving that the medals would not be distributed in the first, but in the second kilometer. I just knew I had to not give up, I had to keep going. I practiced this finish many times at home, even before leaving I wrote to Camille that I would do the finish we are doing in Trakai, when they press me and I run. We just managed to fulfill it and that finish was enough", said V. Senkutė about the course of the competition.
Karolien Florijn from the Netherlands won gold (7:17.28), and Emma Twigg from New Zealand won silver (7:19.14).
Lithuania was successful in the channel of the Paris Olympic Games from the very beginning. V. Senkutė, the debutant of the Olympic Games, who surpassed all competitors in her swimming in the selection and quarterfinals, finished second in the semifinals, and today she became the first Lithuanian rower in history to climb onto the podium of Olympic honors in single boats.
The winding road to Olympus
This is V. Senkutė's first medal in the highest ranking rowing competition among adults. Until now, Lithuania's best achievement was the 6th place in the European and World Championships.
The path to getting to the Paris Olympic Games was particularly winding for the debutant V. Senkute. The rower was forced to put down her oars and take a break when the leaders of the previous rowing federation were no longer considered viable - funding was cut.
Sport has always been close to Victoria - after putting the oars aside, she tried cycling and even became Lithuanian vice-champion in a short time, defended the country's honor in the elite arena of this sport - represented Lithuania in the European Road Cycling Championship.
"At that moment, there was some anger, I was trying to prove something and I realized that you can't achieve anything with anger. So I retired, rested, found a new love for rowing, came back, did what I love, enjoyed it. I did my last workout yesterday and texted Sim that I was sad about it, that I wanted to keep rowing. But it is very important to rest and come back with new strength," the Lithuanian opened about her winding road to Olympus after the finish.
She was pushed to try to return to rowing by the new federation authorities - Rio de Janeiro Olympic vice-champions Mindaugas Griškonis and Saulius Ritter. They were the ones who watched Victoria's special finish live in the stands. With crazy shouts and chants, other rowers and teammates also gave their voice to "Lithuania" - among them is kayaker Simonas Maldonis, who is V. Senkutė's life partner and is himself preparing for his debut at the Olympic Games. It was to him that Victoria said she was especially grateful.
"From Simon Maldoni's winning mentality. We work every day, we talk every day to be like this. In training. I don't know about that mentality, I don't look at others - I come to training and do my job. I practice in my head what I will think, what I will say to myself in the distance, how everything will be. You just need to bring it to the competition," said V. Senkutė.
The rower said that she dedicates the medal to her relatives: "To my father, who was a rower and is now in heaven. To my mother, who follows and supports me a lot. To my boyfriend, without whom this medal wouldn't exist. To my friends, relatives and all of Lithuania and the Baltic countries. To everyone who supports me."
Before V. Senkutė's A final, Giedrius Bieliauskas got his start in the B final. The 27-year-old athlete finished in the 7th place in the fight for the 12-4 positions, covering the distance in 6 min 56.39 sec. and thus secured the 10th position in the final standings at the Paris Olympics.
The representatives of Lithuanian academic rowing are saying goodbye to the Olympic canal of Vero-pri-Marne today. However, the Lithuanian Olympians will return to this place - only yesterday our kayakers arrived in Paris, whose starts will begin on August 6. We will have 5 Lithuanian kayakers and 3 crews.
