Aurimas Valaitis (born 22 April 1988) is a Lithuanian former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. He beat a 29-second barrier to earn a bronze medal in the 50 m breaststroke at the

2006 European Junior Swimming Championships The 2006 European Junior Swimming Championships were held from July 6 to July 9, 2006, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The age groups for this event were girls born in 1990 or 1991 and boys born in 1988 or 1989. Medal table Medal summary Boy's eve ...

Palma de Mallorca, Spain Palma (, ; ), also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is ...

, with his personal best of 28.98. Valaitis qualified for the men's 100 m breaststroke, as Lithuania's youngest swimmer (aged 16), at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, by clearing a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:04.71 from the Dutch Open Swim Cup in

Eindhoven, Netherlands Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also located in the Dutch part of the natural region the Campine. With a population ...

. He challenged seven other swimmers on the third heat, including 15-year-old Nguyen Huu Viet of Vietnam. He raced to fourth place by 0.12 of a second behind New Zealand's

Ben Labowitch Ben-Rachmiel Labowitch (born 1 July 1980) is a New Zealand former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. Since his mother is a New Zealand citizen, Labowitch claims a dual citizenship which allowed him to try out and make the New Zeal ...

, breaking his personal best of 1:04.11. Valaitis failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed thirty-eighth overall on the first day of preliminaries.

References

1988 births Living people Lithuanian male breaststroke swimmers Olympic swimmers for Lithuania Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers from Kaunas {{Lithuania-swimming-bio-stub