Olympic teenage sensation Ruta Meilutyte collapsed, got a doping sentence and quit – now she is forging “shocking results” again

Short Course Swimming World Championships in Melbourne 13.–18.12. The races are shown on channels. You can find the TV schedules here.

In the 2012 London Olympic swimming, there were two races in particular that became the talk of the town. The first was the swimming king Michael Phelps loss to South Africa To Chad le Clos In the 200 meter butterfly.

Another topic of conversation was Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyten preconceptions. He was the sensation of the Games after winning the 100-meter breaststroke Olympic gold at only 15 years old.

– It was really confusing. No one could have expected that he would make such a big jump in results in those games. As is very common in the sports world, the jump in results immediately caused a discussion about banned substances. I remember that the discussion was heated, Urheilu’s swimming expert Ville Kallinen tells.

However, no concrete evidence to support doping suspicions has ever been received. An Olympic victory at the age of 15 is startling anyway.

Kallinen reminds us that an athlete is high enough already after breaking a tough competition limit. Kallinen recalls that Meilutyte was top 10 before London.

– That alone says that he has been a damn hard athlete already at the stage when he has made it to the Olympics. He didn’t go to the games with any bad statistics time. The fact that he reached the gold medal was an absolute bomb.

Two-time short track European champion Jenna Laukkanen also competed in the London Olympics.

– It was in the spring of 2012 when I came across his name for the first time. He had already swum shockingly hard during the spring. The Olympics crowned everything. I was really inspired by his performances there, Laukkanen recalls.

World record

Meilutyte’s pace accelerated even more the following year, when he was still only 16 years old. The teenage star, who won gold at the long track World Championships in Barcelona, ​​set a new world record of 1:04.35 in the semi-finals.

American Lily King broke it in 2017, but Meilutyte’s record is still the second-fastest time ever.

Kallinen says that Meilutyte was physically ahead of his peers as a teenager.

– He has muscle and has had a low body fat percentage. In terms of his physical fitness, he is a really potential swimmer for short distances. There is explosiveness and power.

Laukkanen comps Kallis.

– It has the right length and explosiveness. There are fast cells that are required in the sport.

In many sports, new abilities move the sport forward with some feature. Ruta Meilutyte took the breaststroker in a more modern direction in 2012.

– He has a relatively high frequency in the hand stroke rhythm. 2010–2015 saw a trend change, where the wide breaststroke kick changed to a narrower one, says Kallinen.

Depression

However, after 2013, Meilutyte’s career was not just an upswing. There was still success in value competitions, but adversity also entered the picture.

At the end of 2015, he fell off his bike and broke his elbow. The trouble affected the preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In Rio, the defending 100-meter breaststroke Olympic champion finished seventh.

Meilutyte came into the spotlight at a very young age. He told the Brazilian in 2018 For Globo magazine (you will switch to another service) having suffered from depression since 2016.

Meilutyte stated that the pressure of continued success and media interest after the London Olympics affected him. In addition, the athlete became ill with an eating disorder.

– He has spoken openly about his anxiety symptoms. What he wants from his life and what is expected of him. It should be noted that he was only 15–16 years old at the time. He started to mature into adulthood, says Kallinen.

In the spring of 2019, it was reported that Meilutyte missed three doping tests in 2018–2019.

Meilutyte himself decided to end his career in the spring of the same year and focus on his studies. Meilutyte himself justified skipping the tests by saying that he had already decided to quit. He was banned from competition for two years, which ended in the summer of 2021.

For example According to the BBC (you will switch to another service) he claimed to have filled in his whereabouts incorrectly.

– According to his own words, he had already made the decision to take a break earlier. According to his words, the location errors came about because he had thrown the gloves on the counter. He thought it no longer applies to him, Kallinen says.

A wild comeback

Quitting became a short competition break, as Meilutyte returned to the pool in 2021. This year, he has returned to the value races with a bang.

In July, in Budapest, he achieved his first 50-meter world championship on the long track, and won bronze in the 100-meter breaststroke on his main trip. They took home gold and bronze from the European long course swimming in Rome. He swam the long course 50m record and fourth fastest time of 29.44.

This fall, Meilutyte has taken an even harder hit on the short track. In October, at the World Cup in Berlin, he clocked 28.60 in 50 meters, which was only four hundredths behind Jamaica’s by Alia Atkinson of the world record.

In the 100-meter breaststroke, he is 41 hundredths short of his short course record of 1:02.36. For that he shares the world record with Atkinson.

In this week’s World Short Course Swimming Championships in Melbourne, he is the number one favorite in both the 50 and 100 meter breaststroke distances.

– Clearly, he has had warmth towards sports in store. It tells about liberation from the shackles of certain goals and external pressures. Swimming looks relaxed and easy, Kallinen assesses Meilutyte’s pole.

Meeting in Berlin

The London Games were once also Laukkanen’s first career Olympics. In the 2017 European short track championships, Laukkanen took silver in both races won by Meilutyte.

Laukkanen says that in the first years, he did not dare to go talk to the then teenage star. Over the years, the two have become friends.

– It’s really nice to hear his views on swimming and life in general. His career hasn’t just been an upswing either.

The most recent meeting was a couple of months ago at the World Cup in Berlin.

– It was a great moment when he came to talk. There was a feeling that how could he remember, even though he had been gone for a long time.

According to Laukkanen, Meilutyte has a slightly different personality.

– Ruta herself has shown herself that she does not make a number of herself. I got the impression of him being down-to-earth. You get a warm feeling when he comes to genuinely ask how you are doing. Many others may come and ask, but they may not mean it.

Laukkanen himself is not participating in the short course World Championships, but he plans to follow Meilutyte’s swims with interest. What can be expected in Melbourne from the Lithuanian who has almost reached ME?

– It can be anything at the moment. He has hit shocking results from race to race this season. If Ruta doesn’t stand on the first place in the breaststroke races, it’s a miracle.

Short Course Swimming World Championships in Melbourne 13.–18.12. Finns are included Ronny Brännkärr, Olli Kokko, Ida Hulkko, Veera Kivirinta and Laura Lahtinen. You can find the TV schedules here.