Lithuania won one silver medal at Tokyo Olympics, the country's worst performance since Atlanta Games in 1996. This is an occasion to rethink the country's sports policies, says Jurgita Šiugždinienė, the minister of education, science and sports.
“I am sure that our athletes did their utmost at the Olympics. [...] I have sincere gratitude for them. Putting aside the particularly difficult preparation under the pandemic and the absence of competitions, we have to admit that we hit rock bottom,” the minister said in a statement released on Monday.
Laura Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė won silver in modern pentathlon on Friday, Lithuania's only medal in Tokyo.
Read more: Asadauskaitė wins first Olympic medal for Lithuania
One of the biggest upsets came even before the Games started, when the national men's basketball team failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since Lithuania's independence.
Šiugždinienė said a task group would meet in late August to draw up a plan “to improve the system of high sportsmanship training”.
According to the minister, the government should identify a list of “strategic sports” to focus on, “no more than 15 and better yet 10, so that the state can ensure proper funding and training”.
“It is very important to link infrastructure development, training bases, to the strategic sports – because so far we've been funding no matter what and no matter how,” Šiugždinienė said, adding that Lithuania needed more “international-level” sporting facilities.
She also noted that sporting federations needed comprehensive assistance, “from strategic planning, effective and transparent finance management, to motivating athletes”.
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