Rūta Meilutytė

Who is Rūta Meilutytė?

Rūta Meilutytė is a Lithuanian swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and world record holder. She is the current world record holder in the 50- and 100-meter breaststroke.

At the age of 15, she had already broken eleven Lithuanian women's swimming records. At the 2011 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival Meilutytė won the gold medal in the 100m breaststroke, a silver in the 50m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m freestyle. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Meilutytė won the gold medal in the women's 100 metre breaststroke with a time of 1:05.47. At age 15, she is also the youngest Lithuanian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal. In the semi-final she broke the European record in the 100 m breastroke with a time of 1:05:21. In 2013 Meilutytė broke her own European record by 0.01 second. Rūta competed at 2013 World Aquatics Championships, in Barcelona, and achieved world records in the 100, and 50 meter breaststroke. Meilutytė is a swimming scholar at Plymouth College and is coached by Jon Rudd at the Plymouth Leander Swimming programme.