| Lithuania at the Olympic Games | ||||||||||||
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| At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 59 (47 men, 12 women) in 13 sports | |||||||||||
| Flag bearer | Saulius Štombergas | |||||||||||
| Medals Rank: 45 |
Gold 1 |
Silver 2 |
Bronze 0 |
Total 3 |
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| Olympic history (summary) | ||||||||||||
| Summer Games | ||||||||||||
| 1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 | ||||||||||||
| 1992 • 1996 • 2000 • 2004 • 2008 • 2012 | ||||||||||||
| Winter Games | ||||||||||||
| 1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 | ||||||||||||
| 1992 • 1994 • 1998 • 2002 • 2006 • 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Other related appearances | ||||||||||||
| Russia (1912) Soviet Union (1952–1988) |
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Lithuania competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Contents |
| Medal | Name | Sport | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Virgilijus Alekna | Athletics | Men's Discus Throw |
| Silver | Austra Skujyte | Athletics | Women's Heptathlon |
| Silver | Andrejus Zadneprovskis | Modern Pentathlon | Men's Individual |
The Athletics team won two of three medals for Lithuania in Athens. in the men's discus, Sydney gold medalist Virgilijus Alekna easily put up the largest throw of the qualifying round, but in the final his first, and longest throw was bested by Robert Fazekas of Hungary, leaving Alekna in a silver medal spot. However, Fazekas committed an anti-doping violation by failing to submit a proper urine sample, and was disqualified, lifting Alekna into a gold medal. Alekna was fortunate to be able to stand atop the podium for the medal ceremony, as the disqualification occurred before the ceremony took place.[1]
Lithuania's other athletics medal was much less controversial. Austra Skujytė started poorly in the women's heptathlon, but moved up with huge, season best effort in the shot put, that was more than a metre longer, and worth seventy more points, than the second-best in the competition. Skujyte also through well in the javelin to move up to silver medal position with one event to go, and held on with a season best in the 800 metres, winning by less than a one second margin.
The two medal winners were the only members of the Lithuanian team to finish in the top 10 of their events, and no other athletes advanced to a final.
The Lithuanian team were the top team in their group after the opening round, but had to fight hard to get there, holding off a fast start from Angola to win by five, beating Puerto Rico by eight, and edging the star-studded American team by four.
Still, their first placed finish meant they drew the weakest qualifier from Group A, China, in the quarterfinals, and they advanced easily, winning by twenty. In the semifinals, Lithuania fell prey to the hot shooting of Italy, who, led by Gianluca Basile, shot nearly 50% to win by nine. This setup a rematch with the Americans in the bronze medal game, which this time did not go in Lithuania's favor.
The team's leading scorer was Arvydas Macijauskas of Tau Ceramica, who averaged 15.9 points per game, while Eurelijus Žukauskas of UNICS Kazan contributed 5.0 rebounds a game.
Lithuania sent two boxers to Athens. One lost his first bout, in the round of 32. The other won his first to advance to the quarterfinal, where he was defeated.
Men's Super Heavyweight (+91 kg):
Only one of the three Lithuanian boats in Canoeing in the Games managed to make a final, this being the team of Duonela and Balciunas in the K-2 500 metres. The pair were three-time World Champions in the K-2 200 metres, but were not as successful in the longer 500 metre event in Athens, finishing 7th.
In the women's road race, former World Champion Edita Pučinskaitė found herself in a leading break with less than 10 kilometres to go, but she crashed on a downhill turn and was unable to catch up, ending up in 9th place, while the Polikeviciute twins finished behind in the main peloton. Neither entrant in the time trial finished close to a medal, with Pučinskaitė again getting the best placing, 10th.
The top finish in track cycling from the Lithuanian team was a 4th place from Simona Krupeciate, who was just fifteen-hundredths of a second from a bronze medal spot. Krupeciate also came close to a medal position in the women's sprint, narrowly losing a three-race quarterfinal to a Russian opponent. The Lithuanian men's pursuit team had the misfortune of facing an Australian foursome that set a new world record by more than a half-of-a-second, and were eliminated in the first round.
The first round foursome were Balciunas, Baranauskas, Vaitkus and Vilcinskas, while Konovalovas swapped in for Baranauskas in the first round.
The only Lithuanian judoka in Athens played the only round of 64 match in the Men's 60 kg class, and lost it, ending up in last place overall.
Men's 60 kg (Extra-Lightweight):
Two-time world champion Andrejus Zadneprovskis had a very poor start in the shooting event, but rebounded in the next three events to stand sixth, thirty-three seconds behind the leader going into the 3000 metre run. However, the run was easily Zadnprovskis' strength, and he finished it four seconds quicker than the second-fastest time. His run was fast enough to make up the twenty-two seconds required for a silver medal, but he gained only twenty on the leader, and fell more than fifty points short of gold. The other Lithuanian entrant, Edvinas Krungolcas, had a disastrous run, finishing more than two minutes behind the next-to-last runner, and dropping from 12th to second-last.
The Lithuanian sculling pair finished last overall in their event.
The top finish for Giedrius Guzys was 19th, which she achieved in two races.
Lithuania's only shooter, Sydney gold medalist Daina Gudzinevičiūtė finished five points short of the score needed to make the final, in a disappointing 14th place.
The ten-man Olympic swimming team from Lithuania advanced just two swimmers beyond their opening heats, with only one, Vytautas Janušaitis in the men's 200 metre individual medley, making a final. Janušaitis started well but faded, ending up in 7th, more than four seconds behind Michael Phelps. The other swimmer to advance was Rolandas Gimbutis, who finished 14th in the men's 100 metre freestyle.
Men's 200 metre Individual Medley:
Men's 400 metre Individual Medley:
Men's 4 x 100 m Freestyle Relay:
Vysnaiuskas attempted a Clean & Jerk of 227.5 kg and failed. At the time, this prevented him from finishing 4th, but after Ferenc Gyurkovics was disqualified for an anti-doping violation, the miss turned out to cost him a bronze medal, as he would have won a three-way tie on body weight.
The three Lithuanian wrestlers in Athens all failed to advance beyond pool play, putting up a combined record of 2-5.
Vytautas Kaupas was on the entry list as an alternate for the Track cycling team pursuit, but did not compete in the event.