Rūta Meilutytė

Biography

Rūta Meilutytė (Lithuanian pronunciation: ​[ruːˈtɐ mʲɛɪ̯ɫʊˈtʲi̇̂ːtʲeː]; born 19 March 1997) is a Lithuanian swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and world record-holder. She is the current world record holder in the 100 metre breaststroke (short course). At the age of 15, she had already broken eleven Lithuanian women's swimming records.[1] At the 2011 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival in Trabzon, Meilutytė won the gold medal in the 100m breaststroke, a silver in the 50m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m freestyle. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Meilutytė won the gold medal in the women's 100 metre breaststroke with a time of 1:05.47.[2][3][4][5] At age 15, she was also the youngest Lithuanian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal. In the semi-final she broke the European record in the 100m breastroke with a time of 1:05:21. In 2013 Meilutytė broke her own European record by 0.01 of a second.[6] Rūta competed at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona and achieved world records in the 50 and 100 metre breaststroke.[7] At the age of 17 she became the first and the only swimmer in history to win all available junior and senior international swimming championships at least once.[8]