2. Lithuanians practice over 100 branches of sport.
Basketball is the most popular sport, followed by
football and track-and-field athletics. Apart from
these, Lithuanians are also interested in car-racing
and boxing and enjoy watching figure skating, sport
dancing, cycling, and contests between promising
Lithuanian tennis-players and competitors from other
countries.
3. BASKETBALL
Basketball is called the second religion in Lithuania. As you
travel within Lithuania, you will notice how many
basketball backboards and playing-fields we have, from
professional to self-made.
Basketball is also Number 1 sport in Lithuania by the
number of medals won at Summer Olympic Games. Most of
them are bronze, but we have also won silver and gold.
Victories by the Lithuanian National Basketball Team
always turn into a nationwide festival – we pour into streets
and celebrate until dawn.
Most prominent basketball-players: Šarūnas
Marčiulionis, Arvydas Sabonis, Žydrūnas Ilgauskas,
Artūras Karnišovas, Šarūnas Jasikevičius
4.
5. FOOTBALL
Football, the most popular sport in the
world. The golden age for football in
Lithuania was the 1980s. Our present
football clubs cannot boast impressive
global achievements yet. The most
promising players play for foreign clubs.
7. TRACK AND FIELD
This is Number Two sport in Lithuania in
terms of medals won at Summer Olympics
and Number Three in terms of popularity.
The best Lithuanian track-and-field
athlete of all times is a discus thrower
Virgilijus Alekna. He is a twice Olympic
champion, also Olympic bronze winner,
twice world champion and European
champion. In 2007, Alekna became the
ninth sportsman of the world to receive a
title of UNESCO Champion for Sport.
20. SPORT DANCE
Our sport dancing school is especially strong –
our dance-sport team Žuvėdra (Eng. seagull),
always going for the highest awards across the
world, is a six times world champion and seven
times European champion.
22. LITHUANIA IN THE OLYMPIC
GAMES
For the first time Lithuania participated in the
Olympic Games in 1924 in Paris.
The restoration of Lithuania‘s independence in
1990 our sportsmen participated in four summer
and four winter Olympic Games. Participation in
all the summer Olympic Games was successful
for our sportsmen: they won 49 medals (4 gold
medals, 4 silver medals and 41 bronze medal).
23. Boxer Danas Pozniakas was the first Lithuanian sportsman, Olympic
Champion, who won the gold medal at the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968
24. Romas Ubartas -
gold medalist of
discus throw (the
Barcelona Olympic
Games, 1992).
25. Virgilijus Alekna - two-time
Olympic champion in
discus throw event finish
(the Sydney Olympics in
2000 and the Athens
Olympic Games, 2004).
26. Daina Gudzinevičiūtė -
gold medal winner in
shooting (ditch area)
event finish (Sydney
Olympic Games,
2000).
28. The history of the participation of Lithuania‘s sportsmen
in the Olympic Games records four sportsmen who
became Olympic Champions twice:
basketballer Angelė Rupšienė,
handballer Aldona Česaitytė-Nenėnienė,
cyclist Gintautas Umaras,
discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna.
