Last year the brightest star in the world of Lithuanian sport was Simona Krupeckaitė, a track cyclist who collected a series of medals at the world and European championships and at world cup events, finally breaking the world record in the Women’s 500 m TT (time trial)! Simona was named the best Lithuanian athlete of the year 2009. What can we be pleased with? Three hundred sixty-one—this is the number of the medals won by Lithuanian athletes last year at the world and European championships. Twelve of them are in Olympic sports. We have never had that many in 20 years of independent Lithuania.After a break of 15 years, we won a medal in the world swimming championship.
Giedrius Titenis, an athlete from the town of Anykščiai who has joined the elite swimmers of the world, demonstrated his sports ambitions back in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics and at the 2009 World Championship in Rome won a bronze medal. Rower Mindaugas Griškonis won the first gold medal in rowing at the European Championship in the history of Lithuania.

We are also pleased with the victories of athletes such as table tennis player Rūta Paškauskienė; canoeists Jevgenijus Šuklinas, Tomas Gadeikis, and Raimundas Labuckas; shooter Daina Gudzinevičiūtė; sprinter Lina Grinčikaitė; Greco-Roman wrestler Mindaugas Ežerskis; judoists Marius Paškevičius and Karolis Bauža, pentathletes Laura Asadauskaitė and Donata Rimšaitė; kyokushin karateist Margarita Čiuplytė; and the Latin American sport dance ensemble Žuvėdra.

Fans of the men’s basketball club Lietuvos Rytas celebrated in the streets of Vilnius last year as the basketball players won all the available titles in Lithuania and for the second time in the history of the club won the European Cup. The Lithuanian National Basketball Team, however, failed to please their fans at the European Championship in Poland. But despite the series of matches that the national team lost, a crowd of several thousand fans dressed in yellow, green, and red faithfully supported the team and if there had been a championship for sports fans in Poland, without a doubt the Lithuanians would have won it. We can stay strong even if things don’t go well! Basketball is more popular in Lithuania than football, which is the most popular sport in the world.

The Lithuanian National Football Team started the qualifying matches for the world championship in flying colours, but in the end it suffered several defeats, the most painful of which was to the team from the Faroe Islands. It is no accident that the photograph of the year at the photographic competition ‘Lithuania in Sports 2009’ features a sole

football player against a background of thick smoke. Similarly, the Lithuanian Football Federation seemed to be lost in the mist, looking and failing to find a solution for our national football team that would lead to victories.Except for the joyous victories mentioned above, Lithuanian sport otherwise was shrouded in mist, experiencing a time of economic hardship and change. Yet despite the crisis, changes, and other circumstances, people of all ages participated and will participate in sports at schools or in yards, clubs or sports arenas.

‘Lithuania in Sports 2009’, the second in the series, presents reflections of Lithuanian sport in photographs. Of 2,100 photographs submitted for the competition by 79 professional photographers and amateurs, more than 150 were selected for the album. The selection of the photographs and the winners in different categories of the competition was made by a selection committee consisting of a chairman, Evaldas Skyrius, Deputy Director General of the of the Department of Physical Education and Sports, and members: Jonas Staselis, Chairman of the Lithuanian Press Photographers’ Club; Bronius Čekanauskas, PR Representative of the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee; Gintaras Nenartavičius, Secretary General of the Lithuanian Sports Journalists’ Federation; Lina Daugėlaitė, Member of the Presidium of the Lithuanian Sports Journalists’ Federation; and Dalia Galnaitytė, Assistant Director General of the of the Department of Physical Education and Sports.

It is true that the category entitled ‘Code: official’ of the photographic competition, according to the committee’s decision, remained without a winner since the committee was unable to choose a photograph that they could qualify as the best.

Many thanks to the professional and amateur athletes for the moments they gave us and to professional and amateur photographers for their active participation in the competition. I hope that 2010 will not be short of exciting moments, victories, and camera shots in sport!

Photography Album 'Lithuania in Sports 2009' to download (PDF format): Part I and Part II