Aš myliu Meilutyte: Why I Want Lithuania to Get the Gold in the 100 M Breaststroke

 Because I lived for a year and  a half in Lithuania, and have a few friends there, and a tie to the culture and people, I have a very deep love for Lithuania. Most of you probably don't even know where that is. I usually say it like this: its north of Poland, south of Finland, west of Russia and east of Denmark. I hope that helps those who are unfamiliar with this small but beautifully green country.  
  Because of this when I watch the Olympics, I always keep a special eye out for a chance to see one of there athletes compete. Its not often that I get to. In the past two days, I have seen two of their swimmers do really really well. Tetinis is a men's swimming competitor. He did really well in his semi-final, but was last in the final. When I saw him take second in his semi-final heat at the Olympics, I was pretty stoked. 
  Then, It was time for the women's Breaststroke event. I like Rebecca Soni, and I really love Breeja Larson.  I want them to do well, and up until this morning ( I think, I have watched so much now I don't know when I saw it) I wanted them to go one and two- Gold and Silver.
 Then it was time for heat 4 of the women's 100m, it didn't even get full coverage, it was a blurb referred to after the fact, because no one expected anything from it. And then, and unknown 15 year old  from Lithuania not only won her heat, but had the fastest time of the heats. She cried, I cried, and I shouted Valio Lietuva!!  (Yay Lithuania!!)  And I hoped she would do it again in the semi-finals.  I just watched the NBC coverage of the semi-finals, where they slaughtered the pronunciation of Ruta Meilutyte's name. I cringed, but I watched on.   You can roughly pronounce her last name My-Lu-Tee-Ta  just so you know, although I must admit the Lithuanian word meile ( which means love and I believe is kind of the root of that name, pretty sure) is near impossible for most Americans to pronounce perfectly. I can get pretty close though, and if you say her name like I just phoneticed out, you wont be too far off.  
  Any way, so I just saw the semi-final, she swam even faster than her first time, proving it wasn't a fluke, proving she can do it, she can bring a gold  home, and be the first Lithuanian swimmer to bring home a gold under the Lithuania (and not soviet ) flag. That would mean a lot, and I would love it.  She set a personal best today, broke a European record, was near the world record pace for a bit,  and I will just cry if she can medal at all, but a gold, it would mean more than I could ever say. If I get to hear that Lithuanian national anthem play while she is on the podium getting a gold, I will sing the national anthem while its played, and that will make my year.  I love the two girls from the USA, if the Lithuanian can't do it, I hope they go one and two, But if she can, I would consider it a personal medal sweep for me if Lithuania got gold, and USA got silver and bronze, and I would be happy.    
   Aš myliu Meilutyte- I love Meilutyte.  Thank you so much for allowing me a moment to see Lithuanian greatness on American TV. With the Lithuanian-American Zagunis being USA's flag bearer this year, I think  its a sign of great things for the USA and Lithuania. May we all have an amazing Olympics!