Going into the Olympics my biggest expectation was to make the final
and you know that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do at that time.
And being in the actual final and being ranked 1st, I just thought this is my chance.
I was feeling good.
You know just a wave of sound hit me as I walked out the core room.
My grandma was there, some of my friends came
and the Lithuainian President was there as well watching the race.
No one knew who I was really, so everyone was like ‘who is that girl? I’ve never seen her before’.
You know, I was so happy with my time in the heats and I went 1:05 for the first time in my life
and me and John just said to each other ‘we just need to repeat that again, 2 more times'
and that’s really what I was focusing on.
I think I was one of the youngest in the field,
but one of the favourites was definitely the world champion and Olympic champion, Rebecca Soni.
Yeah, the false start didn’t put me off at all.
I just thought to myself things like that happen, nothing to get nervous or worried about
and just wait for everything to pass and just try to stay in my zone.
I knew that those girls, were really strong in the back 50.
so in order to win I needed to go out faster I think than most of them.
Because they're back 50 are just so strong and back then I used to really fade in the last 25.
I mean it doesn’t exactly show here how big the crowd was, but you know, the size of the crowd
and the amount of people that were there, was just completely overwhelming. It was crazy.
I think I turned 1st, if I’m correct. I’m on my right to go home.
I was just going for it.
All I could see was the wall, I was just focusing on that.
That was my goal and just trying to get to it as fast as I could, without looking to the sides or anything.
The race was going pretty well until the last 15 metres, where I was starting to hurt.
The girls are starting to catch me up by loads and you can sort of see the splashes just coming through.
And I try not to look and was telling me before the race, so I knew those girls were really strong coming back
and all I needed to do was keep my eyes on my own lane
and focus on my own swimming rather than anyone else’s.
And there's Soni, she’s catching me up loads.
At that time I was probably like “Ahhh!” screaming in my head.
Winning by seven one-hundredths, yeah it was pretty close.
I think if it would have been 105m race then I probably would have lost but yeah.
Yeah, the moment I knew that I’d won, I couldn’t believe it at all.
It was just overwhelming and so much emotion was coming up at me, I guess, I started crying.
Obviously going through the mix zone, did loads of interviews
but they told us to get ready for the podium quickly so I didn’t have much time
but I was just sort of in a shock and trying to understand what happened
but then as we got closer to the podium I started to realise what actually happened
and then I went up and that’s where all the emotions came out I think, and just started crying.
Bit of an embarrassing moment.
I mean, the very moment where I was stood up on that podium was, that’s been my dream ever since I was little.
I dreamed of being able to represent my country, maybe one day, definitely not at those Olympics
and I can stand up on that podium and hear my country’s anthem
but I didn’t expect to do that in London, but you know, it was such a proud moment for me.
And yeah, definitely a dream come true.