Less than a month before the Beijing Winter Olympics, a ray of success illuminated the performance of Vytautas Strolia, an alumnus of the Lithuanian Sports University (LSU), who skated on the biathlon track in Ruhpolding, Germany.
Almost two weeks ago, the biathlete entered the annals of the history of independent Lithuania twice, when he finished 4th and 5th in the 10-kilometre sprint and the 12.5-kilometre pursuit at the Biathlon World Cup stage in Germany, and just missed out on the winners’ podium.
“For me, last week was a really memorable one and, at least so far, the most successful in my career,” said Strolia. – Naturally, such high finishes are a great motivation to move forward, but at least for the moment I am extremely satisfied with my achievements.”
The LSU alumnus started his professional biathlon career in the 2014-2015 season. This year’s season is the ninth and the most successful so far for the Lithuanian – Strolia has already accumulated 210 ranking points and is in 26th place.
Speaking about the significant improvement in his results, Strolia was open about the fact that this year’s results are not only due to his years of experience or the intensive preparation in the summer, but also to his exceptional relationship with his coach Sergejus Sokolovskis.
“It all comes together. Experience has kicked in, and so has a good relationship with the coach. We have been working with him for four years now and it’s really paying off – I’m very happy that we have a relationship with Sokolovskis that goes beyond just coach and athlete. We understand each other really well, and that has a lot to do with good performances.
This summer I did a lot of work, often I had to push myself and give it my all, but in the end you see that stubbornness and effort brings results sooner or later,” the biathlete summed up his very good performances.
Algimantas Šalna, another LSU alumnus and the first Lithuanian to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, was also full of praise for V. Strolia.
A. Šalna, who lives in the United States of America, assured that the results demonstrated by V. Strolia should not be a surprise to anyone, because it is a long-term and purposeful work of both the athletes themselves and the Lithuanian Biathlon Federation.
“Vytautas’ results are really impressive. I’ve been following him ever since he started competing against the best in the world. His starts from the beginning showed that he is progressing and this season he has made the biggest leap.
His success also became an achievement for Lithuanian biathlon as a whole. It doesn’t come by itself – it takes a lot of effort. I am pleased with the work of the entire Lithuanian Biathlon Federation with Arūnas Daugirdas leading the way,” said A. Šalna, the gold medallist of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics.
For Strolia, this will be the third Winter Olympics. The LSU alumnus competed as a cross-country skier in Sochi in 2014 and as a biathlete in Pyeongchang in 2018.
But this year in China, Strolia will not only face strong competitors but also extreme conditions, with the Beijing Winter Olympics expected to be one of the coldest in history.
“It wasn’t really warm in Pyeongchang either – the organisers promised to cancel a couple of distances. I think it will be something similar here. The fact is that we are trying to take into account where the Olympics will be held, what the relief is like there. Since none of us have been there, we had to go by what was written on paper, but specific changes were definitely made for Beijing,” the LSU alumnus said.
On 15 January, it became clear that Strolia will not be the only biathlete in China – the Lithuanian Biathlon Federation officially announced that Tomas Kaukėnas, Karolis Dombrovskis and Linas Banys will also be heading to the Beijing Winter Olympics to compete in the men’s relay and form a quartet with Strolia.
“This is certainly a great achievement for us. It was a very big goal for the whole men’s team to go to Pyeongchang, but we didn’t manage to do it. We are continuing our preparation and are currently in the mountains in Italy. The plan is to start here only in the relay and stay for another week of training. Then we will fly straight from here to Beijing and get ready for the start,” said Strolia.
The biathlete graduated from the Bachelor’s degree programme in Coaching Systems at the Lithuanian Sports University in 2019, and is still enjoying the opportunities it has created for him to train professionally and to study.
“In a sport like biathlon it is very difficult to study. The Lithuanian Sports University provided me with ideal conditions – I couldn’t have hoped for better. The lecturers were extremely understanding, allowing me to report my assignments when I returned from competitions. Now I have a goal to return to LSU for my Master’s studies,” Strolia revealed.
The Beijing Winter Olympics will take place from 4th until 20th of February. Vytautas Strolia will make his first start in the individual event on 8th of February.
Personal archive photo.
