Olympic gold medalist Ruta Meilutyte on Wednesday posted a video “in support of the Ukrainian people who are facing genocide committed by Russia.”
The video, which included an expansion of the thoughts by Meilutyte, features her swimming in a pond in front of the Russian embassy in Lithuania. The pond was dyed with environmentally-friendly paint to be red in an effort to evoke the bloody deaths of Ukrainians after the Russian invasion of their country.
The video includes a message on the road next to the pond that reads “PUTIN, THE HAGUE IS WAITING FOR YOU”.
The Hague, Netherlands is the home to the International Criminal Court. There is a growing outcry from the world calling for Putin to face trial for war crimes as more evidence of rape, torture, and intentional killing of civilians by Russian soldiers is coming to light.
Swimming Through
The performance “Swimming Through” is a call for action in support of the Ukrainian people who are facing genocide committed by Russia. pic.twitter.com/LuXRFms2c4
— Rūta Meilutytė (@MeilutyteRuta) April 6, 2022
Meilutyte’s Thread (in text, click above to see the associated images), echoing that of the artist Berta Tilmantaite:
- The performance “Swimming Through” is a call for action in support of the Ukrainian people who are facing genocide committed by Russia.
- It is important not to get numb to the horrific images of mass killings of Ukrainians and their pain. The seemingly never-ending horrors imposed by Russia on the Ukrainian land must not become the norm.
- With countries such as Germany not stepping up and posing adequate sanctions on the aggressor – choosing money over people, makes it hard to remain hopeful.
- Therefore it’s crucial that we keep acting – spreading truthful information, volunteering, protesting, donating, and pressuring our governments to take action.
- The bloody pond emphasizes Russia’s responsibility for committing war crimes against Ukrainians. Swimming, performed by Lithuanian Olympian Rūta Meilutytė, symbolizes the need for continuous effort to fight through.
- (The pond in front of the Russian embassy in Lithuania was dyed with ecological paint which is environmentally friendly and extensively used in biological scientific tests.)
- Idea and execution: Berta Tilmantaitė, Neringa Rekašiūtė, Rūta Meilutytė, Aurelija Urbonavičiūtė
Photo & Video: Neringa Rekašiūtė, Berta Tilmantaitė, Mindaugas Drigotas, Andrius Repšys, Karolis Pilypas Liutkevičius
Music: Viktoras Urbaitis
- SLAVA UKRAINI!
Meilutyte’s native Lithuania shares a border with Belarus, a country which has aided Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The country has received more than 40,000 Ukrainian immigrants according to the Lithuanian government.
Meilutyte is not the first elite swimmer to post a provocative anti-war image on social media. Ukrainian-born Turkish swimmer Viktoriya Gunes posted a picture of herself standing on a Russian flag, which drew outrage from Russian swimmers. So far, SwimSwam has not noticed any responses to Meilutyte’s posts by Russian swimmers on social media.
As a teenager, Meilutyte strung together one of the most-dominant single-event blocks of competition that we’ve seen in the modern era of swimming. At one point, she simultaneously held the Olympic title, the World titles in long course and short course, the European title in short course, the Youth Olympic title, and the World Junior title in the 100 breaststroke.
At the time, she was training with the Plymouth Leander Swim Club in the UK under Jon Rudd, who has gone on to lead a resurgence in Irish swimming. Shortly before her break, and subsequent retirement, from swimming, she went to train with Dave Salo in the United States, who has trained many of the top American female breaststroke of the last 15 years.
Meilutyte retired from swimming in 2019 at the age of 22 after being suspended for missing doping tests. Meilutyte said that she was battling severe depression that was driven in part by the pressure to continue her success after the 2012 Olympics.
In December, Meilutyte, now 24 years old, made a surprise return to the pool at the Lithuanian Short Course Championships. There she swam 1:05.23 in the 100 breaststroke and set a new Lithuanian Record in the 50 freestyle in 24.32.
She was not ready to commit to a full return to competition after that, but she did go to camp with the Lithuanian team in Spain. She continues to race mostly at local meets, going 25.19 in the 50 free and 30.24 in the 50 breast in February.
i like her
Based Ruta
Don’t argue with this guy, who is simply a part of Russian propaganda. His position is very simple and is classic example of propaganda: if something was accepted in the past then why that shouldn’t be allowed now.
Arguing with him that is what he wants because there is no compelling arguments when speaking to demagogue. Ignore him – that is what would kill such posts.
Always was a big fan of her. The girl had very tough motherless childhood and being extremely talented in swimming teenager got wrong coach who wasn’t able to understand what a gem he was dealing with.
In 1940 after making a secret deal with Nazi Germany Soviet tanks have done to Lithuania exactly same thing they are doing to Ukraine now. Lithuania people are keeping a very good memory of that. The first thing they did after getting independence from Soviet Union was obtaining military protection under NATO article #5. They new that the expansion appetite of their neighbour never gets satisfied.
A questão não é protestar a questão é só ha protesto contra a Rússia ,EUA invadiu matou e o mundo viu o ocidente viu e nada fez o negócio só os russo são mal no mundo e causa caos os americanos não fazem isso TB irônico ne
¿Alguém sabe como traduzir “whataboutism”para o português?
Whataboutism (também chamado de whataboutery)[nota 1][1][2] é uma variante da falácia formal tu quoque em que se tenta desacreditar a posição do argumentador ao acusá-lo de hipocrisia sem refutar seu argumento.[3][4][5] O termo originou-se na época da Guerra Fria e essa falácia foi utilizada em diversos momentos e contextos, incluindo, por exemplo: por propaganda e líderes… Read more »
The Russian swimmers were VERY quick to jump on Gunes and call for her to be banned. I guess since that was 3 weeks ago and in the last 3 weeks there has been an insurmountable amount of evidence that Russia is actively committing war crimes that has shut them up.
I honestly wasn’t sure whether I agreed with the Russia/Belarus ban at first but seeing how not one Russian swimmer has criticised Rylov for political action but a whole bunch of them jumped on Gunes, it tells you pretty much everything you need to know.
Much respect for Ruta. Well done.
based i fear
based giga rūta