{"id":370686,"date":"2019-05-26T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=370686"},"modified":"2019-05-26T09:38:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T16:38:34","slug":"ruta-meilutyte-a-look-back-at-the-rise-and-fall-of-an-olympic-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ruta-meilutyte-a-look-back-at-the-rise-and-fall-of-an-olympic-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruta Meilutyte: A Look Back at the Rise and Fall of an Olympic Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruta Meilutyte\u00a0<\/strong>announced her retirement<\/a> from competitive swimming this week after missing three doping tests and facing the threat of a suspension<\/a>. The 22-year-old Lithuanian won the Olympic gold medal in the 100 breast<\/a> at just 15-years-old at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, scoring one of the biggest upsets at the meet over Rebecca Soni<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Coming in to the London Olympics, she was only a 1:07.30 in the 100 breast, hardly a medal favorite. In 2011, she was ranked 23rd in the world with a 1:07.96, hardly a favorite to even reach the Olympic final. But in heat four of six at the 2012 Olympic Games, she lowered her best time all the way down to a 1:05.56, scoring the top seed out of the heats.<\/p>\n

She proved that 1:05 was not a fluke when she swam a new European Record in the semi-finals with a 1:05.21, again getting the top seed in the final. The Olympics were Meilutyte’s first major international meet at the senior level, but suddenly Meilutyte was the favorite to win the gold medal. In a mini-documentary published by Trans World Sport in 2013, Meilutyte and her coach\u00a0Jon Rudd\u00a0<\/strong>said they went to London as a way to enjoy it and gain experience to peak at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.<\/p>\n

They were just hoping she would make the final.<\/p>\n

The nerves surrounding you when you’re competing in your first Olympics can be destabilizing. Some young athletes are able to handle it well, like Missy Franklin\u00a0<\/strong>in 2012. Some young athletes are not able to handle it well, like\u00a0Katie Hoff\u00a0<\/strong>in 2004. But Meilutyte had nerves of steel in London. She was able to handle the 24 hour turnaround from semi-finals to the finals as the top seed, even if it was her first ever major final at the international level. She was able to handle the faux-false start in the final when\u00a0Breeja Larson\u00a0<\/strong>reacted to a rogue starter that caused the race to be delayed almost two minutes, which can be a lifetime when you’re sitting behind the blocks.<\/p>\n

Meilutyte swam a little slower in the final with a 1:05.47, but was still good enough to win the gold medal. At just 15, she became Lithuania’s first medalist\u00a0<\/em>in swimming at the Olympic Games, rocketing her to international fame. It was also Lithuania’s sixth gold medal the country had ever won at the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n