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These days, the broadcast of the Olympic Games attracts a huge number of sports fans to television screens, but it is no secret that at a time when most of Europe was already enjoying the competitions and achievements of its athletes in the Olympic stadiums, Lithuania was fiercely fighting in the political ring, striving for the most precious asset for the country - freedom. Therefore, for many years, representatives of our country were not seen among the Olympians, and even the first faces that appeared represented a different flag, not the flag of the Republic of Lithuania. True, the Olympic history of Lithuania should begin a little earlier.
First Olympic Trials
Having successfully freed our country from the clutches of Tsarist Russia, the first doors to the Summer Olympic Games in the French capital, Paris, opened for us. At the Olympics held in May 1924, Lithuania was represented by a football team, which, unfortunately, ended its appearance at the Games after losing the first match to the Swiss team. Although the result was disappointing, even 9:0, circumstances could hardly have allowed for more: after receiving the right to participate in the Olympics, Lithuania had to urgently gather athletes who would represent the country, so the team had not trained together, and in addition, it had to travel 40 hours by train to France, after which the Lithuanian football team was already on the field just ten hours later. Two more athletes from the country, cyclists, who participated in the Olympic Games that same year, also turned out to be unsuccessful, failing to complete the course.
Four years later, at the Games held in the Netherlands, the Lithuanian Olympic team consisted of 12 athletes. Only one of them managed to achieve a higher result. This was boxer Juozas Vinča, who shared 5th-8th places with other athletes. Throughout his career, the boxer earned more awards and also contributed to the popularization of this sport in Lithuania. Juozas Vinča ended his life and is buried in the USA, in Boston.
The years 1932 and 1936 were particularly difficult for Lithuania. Our country's representatives were unable to attend the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, due to economic difficulties. And four years later, Lithuanian representatives were simply not invited to the Olympics in Berlin for political reasons.
After this Olympic debut, there was a gap of almost 60 years before Lithuanian athletes were again given the right to represent the country at the Olympic Games, which were again held in France. Although it should be remembered that during those long years, they were not banned from participating in the Olympics, they were simply forced to represent the Soviet Union.
Olympic history of Soviet Lithuania
During and after World War II, Lithuania was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, so its name had to be represented by athletes. True, if we were talking only about achievements, the year was not bad, as the country's athletes brought home their first Olympic medals, but everything from the beginning.
After annexing Lithuania, the Soviet Union was reluctant to accept Lithuanians into the Olympic ranks, but the latter demonstrated truly impressive results. For the first time, five Lithuanian athletes representing the USSR brought home 3 silver medals from the Olympic Games held in the Finnish capital Helsinki. Every year, until the restoration of independence in the 1990s, Lithuanian athletes participated in the Olympic Games, from which they never returned without medals. They brought back the most medals in 1988 from the Olympics held in Seoul. That year, over 20 Lithuanian athletes participated in the Games, who won a total of 14 medals, 9 of which were gold. Among these medalists are already the names of now well-known athletes, such as basketball players: Valdemaras Chomičius, Rimas Kurtinaitis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis and Arvydas Sabonis.
The Seoul Olympics were also the last Olympics in which Lithuanian athletes were forced to represent the Soviet Union. And we should also mention the first gold medals that Lithuanians brought back from Mexico. The Olympics were held here in 1968.
Throughout the entire Olympic history of Soviet Lithuania, the country's athletes won more than 50 medals, and after the end of the years of occupation, a new Olympic stage began in a free Lithuania.