Lithuanian alpine skier (born 1994)
Ieva Januškevičiūtė (born 22 September 1994) is a Lithuanian alpine skier and two-time Winter Olympian.[2] She is the first Lithuanian woman to compete in the Winter Olympics in alpine skiing.[3] She is currently the head coach of the "Snow Bees" ski club and a personal trainer based in Vilnius.[4]
Biography
Januškevičiūtė first stood on skis on a family trip to the Tatra mountains at age five. She began ski racing at the age of 12 as a member of the "Kalnų ereliai" (Mountain Eagles) ski club, based at "Žiemos trasa" on Liepkalnis in Januškevičiūtė's hometown of Vilnius. Her first coach was Lithuanian-American Jennifer Virskus.[3] At the age of 13, she was interviewed by Trans World Sport as part of a feature about the Kalnų ereliai ski team.[5] She later joined Kronplatz Racing Centre in Italy and was coached by Nicola Paulon.[3]
In 2012 at the age of 18 she broke Lithuanian national records of women's alpine skiing FIS points.[6]
In 2013, she competed at FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2013: 81st in giant slalom, did not finish in slalom.[citation needed]
In 2014 Januškevičiūtė was selected to represent Lithuania in 2014 Winter Olympic Games.[7] She attracted a lot of local media attention as being the first Lithuanian female alpine skier that qualified for the Olympics.[8]
In 2014 Winter Olympics she participated in two events. Januškevičiūtė finished 71st at the first run of giant slalom, but did not finish the second one.[9] During the slalom, one of her skies detached, and she could not finish the course.[10]
In 2015, she represented Lithuania at the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships at Beaver Creek, Colorado.[11]
In 2018 Januškevičiūtė was selected to represent Lithuania at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. She finished 54th in giant slalom[12] and 43rd in the women's slalom event.
References