Edgaras Matakas

Started: His parents took him to swimming lessons at age 10 in Kaunas, Lithuania, and he took up Para swimming at age 15. (delfi.lt, 30 Nov 2023; Athlete, 14 Aug 2018) Reason: His parents wanted him to learn how to swim for water safety reasons. (zmones.15min.lt, 04 Oct 2022) Ambition: To win a gold medal at the Paralympic Games, and to set a new world record. (lsu.lt, 28 Oct 2020; Athlete, 20 Aug 2019) Milestones: He became the first Para swimmer representing Lithuania to win gold at the world championships, claiming victory in the S11 50m freestyle at the 2017 edition of the tournament in Mexico City, Mexico. (SportsDeskOnline, 21 Aug 2019; tv3.lt, 30 May 2019) Awards: He was named the 2021 and 2022 Male Para Athlete of the Year at the Lithuanian Sports Awards. (delfi.lt, 22 Dec 2022; snaujienos.lt, 27 Dec 2021) He was Lithuania's flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. (myinfo.rio2016.com, 06 Sep 2016) Additional Info: RETURN TO FORMER COACH In January 2020, after poor results in 2018 and 2019, he returned to coach Ramunas Leonas who had trained him between 2012 and 2016. "I realised that all those difficulties were created by psychology. My body was trained and ready for competition. The problems were mental. Now I work with psychologists to prevent this from happening again. I try to forget all the misfortunes, difficulties, and to look at everything as brightly as possible. I'm glad [Leonas] agreed to work and prepare me for [the 2020 Paralympic Games in] Tokyo. You could say it's an old new coach. At first, there was a bit of uncertainty about how things would go, but now everything is fine. I wouldn't say it's a big shock. We work well, we agree, everything will stay. We have a good training climate. That must be it." (lrytas.lt, 14 Feb 2020)