Biggest Surprise of 2023 (Women’s): Ruta Meilutyte Back on Top in Sprint Breaststroke

Ruta Meilutyte of Lituania reacts after competing in the 50m Breaststroke Women semifinal during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 29th, 2023. Ruta Meilutyte placed first with a new world record.

Ruta Meilutyte -- Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Biggest Surprise of 2023 (Women’s): Ruta Meilutyte Back on Top in Sprint Breaststroke

In early 2019, Ruta Meilutyte appeared done with swimming. She had captured Olympic gold in a stunning result at age 15 before winning world titles and breaking world records, but after a relatively disappointing few years, Meilutyte announced her retirement. Even if she wanted to compete, she was also suspended from swimming after missing three anti-doping tests in a 12-month span.

This year, 11 years after winning that Olympic gold, Meilutyte is once again the queen of sprint breaststroke. The Lithuanian swimmer made a dramatic return to global racing at the 2022 World Championships, where she surprised many by winning gold in the 50 breast and bronze in the 100 breast. She followed that up with gold in the 50 breaststroke at the Short Course World Championships in December, setting a world record in the process.

This year, the 26-year-old Meilutyte arrived in Fukuoka with clear medal chances, but she was far from the favorite in the 100 breast, with the American duo of Lilly King and Lydia Jacoby both impressing in the leadup to the meet. But in Fukuoka, Meilutyte was dominant through all three rounds of the 100 breast.

Meilutyte began with a time of 1:04.67 in prelims that was her fastest in a decade and eight tenths clear of the field. In the final, Meilutyte swam five hundredths quicker, and no one else came within a second, with 200 breast Olympic champion Tatjana Schoenmaker claiming silver and Jacoby beating out King for bronze. Only King, Meilutyte, Yuliya Efimova and Jessica Hardy have ever surpassed the Lithuanian’s time of 1:04.62, and Meilutyte was again a world champion.

“I’m really super grateful, having fun,” Meilutyte said of her return to swimming. “I’ve definitely matured and grown in many different ways. I can’t point to something in particular, but I’m definitely more relaxed. The whole approach is different, to training, to swimming, to everything.” The champion added that in her late-career return to the sport, “The main thing is just to be in the moment and enjoy.”

Four days later, Meilutyte set her first long course world record in a decade, touching in 29.30 in the 50 breast semifinals to tie Benedetta Pilato’s world record. One night later, it was another gold, this time by a whopping eight tenths, and another world record, as Meilutyte clocked 29.16.

Meilutyte will turn 27 in March as she pursues a third Olympics, aiming to make her trip to Paris more like her trip to London in 2012 than the one to Rio de Janeiro in 2016, where she ended up eighth in the 100 breast. But already, Meilutyte’s comeback has been prolific, with three individual world titles after winning just one during her time as a teenage star.

A decade of life experiences and time completely away from swimming helped Meilutyte find her form once again. Her results in 2022 already made the comeback a successful one, but her dominant results and world records provided the biggest surprise in women’s swimming this year.

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