2024-05-11 10:27:24
Birutė said that she has been deaf since birth, just like her parents. “I wear hearing aids, without which I feel like I have no arms and no legs. Hearing aids help to understand interlocutors, because communication is very important to me, like everyone. Even with them, sometimes I don’t understand something, so I always try to look at the interlocutor’s lips. Sometimes, when you have to communicate longer, it’s tiring. I used to get complex if I didn’t hear something, but over the years, both my own and the society’s attitude towards the deaf have changed – now I’m not afraid to ask several times if I don’t understand something,” Birutė said frankly.
The ability to read lips well and a developed understanding of language helped her to finish a comprehensive school and university. “I felt safe at school because I studied together with my best friend, who was my wall if someone tried to make fun of me,” Birutė recalled.
After that, she graduated from the Lithuanian Sports University with a bachelor’s degree in sports recreation and management (she is still thinking about a master’s degree, she just needs to find the time).
She chose such studies because she had already fallen in love with sports.
Until the 4th grade, Birutė went to the swimming pool – she did well, but she got bored of swimming and wanted more action. Later, she tried handball, basketball, and finally volleyball, which fascinated and involved her.
“Maybe it was influenced by the fact that I got to the wonderful coach Jolita Virbickienė. She was one of the best volleyball coaches in Lithuania, and she was also an authority for me. Besides, volleyball was familiar to me – it was played by my aunt, grandparents and mother. It must have been coded in my genes, so it became my way of life. I am very grateful to my parents – they did not pressure me, but created the conditions to express myself in the areas that attracted me”, said Birutė.
To the national team and to the championship
The young volleyball player tried hard, improved, her desire to achieve more and more increased. The efforts were appreciated, the girl was invited to represent the Lithuanian youth volleyball team.
Since 2001 she was a member of the Heksos – KCSM team. With this team, he became a multiple champion of Lithuania.
By chance, Birutė was noticed by representatives of the Lithuanian Deaf Sports Committee – that’s how she started participating in deaf competitions. in 2005 she defended the name of Lithuania in the first international European Deaf Beach Volleyball Championship in Turkey with her partner Sigita Lukošiūta and took 13th place.
“Since then, I’ve been training with even more inspiration. Two years later, we became runners-up in the second European Deaf Beach Volleyball Championship held in Greece. That’s how up until now, partner Ingrida Milkintaite and I try to keep the bar high,” said Birutė.
There are two of them in the team, and both are different, so they try to be wise and understand each other in order to work together successfully. “I’m a maximalist, I want to do every action as best as possible, as perfect as possible, I demand a lot from others too, so sometimes I overdo it.” My partner and I get angry and we don’t talk. But it lasts for a short time, we cannot do without each other, we have to help and support each other, after all, we are pursuing a common goal”, Birutė did not hide.
The interviewer is also very grateful to coach Pauliis Matulis, who, according to her, is sincere and humane, as well as patient, because patience is really needed in such a job. The coach is also understanding – when he sees that the athletes are already tired, he lets them rest for a couple of days so that they can return to training with new energy.
Plays in the rain and in the heat
While exercising intensely, Birutė also worked for some time – she was a teacher’s assistant at the Kaunas Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education Center, and the chairwoman of the Prienai Deaf Organization.
“My last workplace was the document management, storage and destruction company “Archyvita” – I really liked working there, the work was interesting, versatile and meaningful. I didn’t want to give it up, but after having my son after parental leave, I realized that physically I couldn’t do everything – I couldn’t be good at both activities and at home, at least I’m not good at it. I had to choose one job to which I would devote myself with all my might, and I chose volleyball – I don’t know how much longer I will be able to play sports, and there will still be time to work,” said the mother of three-year-old Domantas.
It is her son, and not her victories, that she is most proud of. In sports, she tends to be happy not so much with trophies and prize places, but with the impressions and beautiful emotions she has experienced during her travels, as well as with supportive friends and relatives.
“There was everything on trips – in my teens I had to forget both my clothes and my passport (I had to ask my relatives to bring me to customs). And the biggest challenge in beach volleyball is the weather – you have to play in strong wind when you can’t control the ball, or in the rain when you can’t see it. But you play because there is no other choice. And sometimes it’s very hot – not everyone in southern countries can withstand the heat, both players and referees faint,” said Birutė.
And she said that the year 2009 left the biggest impression on her. Deaf Olympic Games held in Taipei, Taiwan. When the athletes came to train by the ocean, they found traces of a storm, the pitches were gone, and two days later they were waiting for the competition. But the Taiwanese are very hard-working people, they fixed everything so quickly that the competition and service were at the highest level.
“The opening and closing of the Games was something wonderful, I have never seen it before in my life. The country itself and the culture of the people are of a very high level, it’s hard to describe, you should feel it,” said Birutė.
However, she noticed that the life of an athlete is not simple, there is constant tension in it. “Each major competition is accompanied by excitement and fear of not being able to show the desired results. Therefore, if you want to win, you must simply believe and enjoy what you do. I think that sport should first of all bring pleasure – if it becomes a burden, you should choose another activity”, said the volleyball player who won many victories.
Hardworking and responsible
Coach P. Matulis said that he has known Birutė for a long time, because, like her, he played volleyball from a young age, and their paths inevitably crossed. When the athlete moved from Kaunas to Vilnius, she asked him to accept her and her partner for training.
Wasn’t it scary for the trainer, who had previously worked with hearing people, to start working with hearing-impaired women? “I saw it as a challenge that was exciting to take on. And we really talk to them, we often understand each other without words. In fact, the specifics of the game are somewhat different, because during the competition, the hearing players call out to each other – “higher”, “wider”, “run there”, while the deaf cannot do this, they need to have a very strong mutual connection in order to feel when they should be in which part of the field “, P. Matulis explained.
Birute and Ingrid do it well and they often make the coach happy with their results. “It is already difficult to count how many victories there were in the European Championships, and perhaps the most important for us are the Deaf Olympic Games – there they took second and third places,” said the interviewer.
Now B. Aleknavičiūtė and I. Milkintaitė are preparing daily for the World Deaf Beach Volleyball Championship to be held in Prague at the end of August.
The coach did not dare to predict what the results of the Lithuanians will be in this championship. According to him, female athletes are hardworking and responsible, they really work honestly, try hard, improve their technique and are motivated – but the real results become clear only during matches.
2024-05-11 10:27:24