Team Lithuania - Profile

Highlights: Lithuania's first appearance at the Olympic Games was in Paris in 1924. At those Games, two cyclists and the men's football team competed, with the footballers giving up nine goals in their only match as they were knocked out in the first round. Lithuania attended the 1928 Games, but would not return to the Olympic Games as an independent nation again until 1992.

Basketball is Lithuania's national sport, and two of the country's most highly-regarded athletes - Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marciulionis - were part of the first independent Lithuanian basketball team. After starring in the Soviet Union's 1988 gold medal-winning team, Sabonis and Marciulionis were the leaders of the Lithuanian team that travelled to the Barcelona Games in 1992. There, the team had huge success, losing to the US 'Dream Team' in the semifinals before going on to get an emotional 82-78 victory in the bronze medal match over the post-Soviet Unified Team that was made up of many of their former teammates. Both Sabonis and Marciulionis were part of the Lithuanian team that claimed another bronze medal in the sport four years later at Atlanta 1996.

Athletics is Lithuania's most successful sport by number of gold medals won and the NOC's most successful athlete is men's discus competitor Virgilijus Alekna. Alekna won gold at the 2000 and 2004 Games, added bronze in 2008 and finished fourth in 2012. He followed on from Romas Ubartas, who won Lithuania's other athletics gold, and first-ever medal, in the discus in 1992.

Lithuania won four medals at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, one silver and three bronze. Three of the medals were won on water, with rowers Mindaugas Griskonis and Saulius Ritter winning a silver in the men's double sculls and Donata Vistartaite and Milda Valciukaite claiming a bronze in the women's double sculls. Sprint paddlers Aurimas Lankas and Edvinas Ramanauskas won a bronze in the men's K2 200m race.

Additional Information: Website
http://www.ltok.lt

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/olimpiniskomitetas

Anthem Title: Tautiska Giesme [The National Song]

Anthem Composer: Music and lyrics by Vincas Kudirka.

Anthem Inducted: 1990

Official NOC Name: National Olympic Committee of Lithuania

Founding Date: 1924

IOC Recognition Date: 1991

Delegation President: Daina Gudzineviciute

Delegation Secretary General: Valentinas Paketuras

IOC Members: Daina Gudzineviciute [entry in the IOC: 2018]

First OG/PG Appearance: 1924

Number OG/PG Appearances: 10 [Tokyo 2020 included]

Summary: