Expectations became reality – a multitude of sports activities, fierce running challenge and intriguing demonstration challenges, numerous prizes and a concert attracted a record number of people to the Olympic Day. On Saturday the events in Klaipėda were attended by 30,000 residents and guests.

The festival was started by the Olympic Day torch relay. The burning torch traveled in a motorboat, the yacht “Ambersail”, a boat, then carried on a bicycle and by a runner.

In its journey around the Curonian Lagoon, Danė river and the Oldtown of Klaipėda, the torch was carried by the most prominent Olympians of the Klaipėda region – brothers cyclists double Olympic champion Gintautas Umaras and Olympic champion Mindaugas Umaras, basketball players Olympians Eurelijus Žukauskas, double Olympian sprinter Lina Grinčikaitė and others.

“Everything came back, all the memories about preparation camps, Olympic challenges. Those are pleasant memories. Of course, my hands did shake slightly when lighting the torch”, said the bronze medal winner of 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2000 Sydney Olympics Eurelijus Žukauskas when reflecting about his impressions.

This year the Olympic Day featured an impressive and, again, record number of sports activities. As many as 100 challenges were tried out not only by amateurs, but also by professionals.

Among the participants also were Andrius Šidlauskas who has already qualified for participation in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, the permanent participant of this event Olympian Rokas Guščinas, pentathletes Olympian Gintarė Venčkauskaitė-Juškienė and medalist of London 2012 Olympics Laura Asadauskaitė-Zadneprovskienė, basketball player Lina Pikčiutė, javelin thrower Edis Matusevičius, Olympian marathon runner Valdas Dopolskas and golf player Juozapas Budrikis. World champion Olympian discus thrower Andrius Gudžius also participated together with his young daughter.

“I feel a bit sad, I didn’t want this day to end”, sincerely admitted Vytautas Grubliauskas. “I think that its main purpose – to inspire understanding that movement is healthy and that the Olympic spirit is a true value – was definitely achieved. Even though next year the Olympic Day will take place in another place, we will not forget this festival and keep hoping for it to come back to Klaipėda.”

There are 150,000 residents in Klaipėda city, and the festival was attended by as many as 30,000. We are glad that we managed to achieve the goal that we had set for ourselves since starting to organize this event. Also, we care not only about quantity, but also about quality, therefore, seeing the smiles of thousands of participants we can truly conclude that the event was successful”, said the President of the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee, member of the International Olympic Committee, and Olympic champion Daina Gudzinevičiūtė.

Next year the Olympic Day will take place in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius. The deputy mayor of Vilnius promised to help make the 2020 festival even better than this year’s.

“Lately Vilnius has become known for its running and cycling events and their scale – in the city we have many suitable areas that could be adapted for running and cycling tracks. Other sports will also definitely find their place in Vilnius – there is the river Neris and Vingis park”, said V. Bekunskas when sharing his initial ideas.

“It would be unambitious to consider decreasing the number of activities or just keeping it the same as this year, therefore we will try to make everything bigger and better, including the number of sports challenges.”

Although the date or the venue of the Olympic Day 2020 is unclear yet, it is known that, as usually, it will take place in June. It will include a lot of Olympic Games motifs, as next year the world’s biggest sports event – Tokyo Olympic Games – will also take place.