Walker Brigita Virbalytė-Dimšienė finally received the bronze medal of the European Championship, which has been awaited for seven years. 2018 At the championships held in Berlin, the track and field athlete, who improved the Lithuanian record, finished fourth, but it soon became clear that the doping test of the Czech Anežka Drahotova, who took the second place, was positive. However, the decision of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport on the rookie leaderboard had to wait until this year.
Finally, on December 19, 2025, the bronze shone on B. Virbalytė-Dimšienė’s chest – at the Lithuanian Athletics Federation’s season closing ceremony in Vilnius, the medal sent to European Athletics was presented to the athlete by the president of the federation Eimantas Skrabulis and Secretary General Nijolė Medvedeva. The athlete, who wiped away tears of joy, said that she had been waiting for this day for a very long time.
“2687 days. That’s how long it lasted from the championship in Berlin to the moment I got the medal. I watched the finish many times, wondered how my belief in myself and my entire sports career could have changed. I have said many times that every athlete needs that medal in life. I had a medal of the European Team Championship together with the Lithuanians. But I didn’t have an individual medal. In my own way, I had entered the elite of athletes, but I didn’t have anything to prove it. Maybe it may seem to many that it doesn’t matter, but it is important to me. This medal crowns a 26-year career,” says the walker.
When asked where she will put this most honorable career award, B. Virbalytė-Dimšienė says that it is important to celebrate it with others first. “Yesterday, when I was traveling home from Australia, I was thinking about where he would end up. I have a medal room at home, but I really want to find an exclusive place for it. However, now the most important thing is to show this medal to everyone who has contributed to my path and has not stopped believing in me and this process for all seven years. We all believed that justice can prevail, because sport must be fair, in which there is no deception and everything must be won honestly and with hard and persistent work,” concludes the athlete, who officially finished her career last year.
At this LLAF event, world record holders awards were also presented to discus thrower Mykolas Alekna and runner Aleksandr Sorokinas, badges were collected by this year’s Lithuanian record holders, and the artist’s works were awarded to the most successful athletes and veterans who performed in the major championships.
Photo by Alfredas Pliadis
