Meda Variakojytė

Meda Variakojytė (born 3 May 2007) is a Lithuanian figure skater. She is the 2024 EduSport Trophy champion, the 2023 Kaunas Ice Autumn Cup champion, and a three-time Lithuanian national champion (2024–26). At the 2026 Winter Olympics, Variakojytė became the first Lithuanian figure skater to compete in the women's singles event.

Variakojytė is the 2023 Lithuanian junior national champion and the 2022 Lithuanian junior national silver medalist.

Career Variakojytė began figure skating in 2012 in her hometown, Kaunas. She then competed at the 2023 Jelgava Cup in the senior level and won the silver medal with a score of 155.95. Additionally, she met the technical elements score requirement to compete at the 2024 World Championships. At the 2023 CS Nepela Memorial, she finished ninth and scored a personal best in the free skate. She won a silver medal at the 2023 Bosphorus Cup behind Ting Tzu-Han.

Variakojytė won her first senior national title at the 2024 Lithuanian Championships. She competed at the 2024 World Junior Championships and finished thirty-ninth in the short program with a score of 43.57, failing to advance to the free skate segment. She also competed at the senior-level World Championships and finished thirty-fifth in the short program and did not advance to the free skate segment.

2024–25 season

Variakojytė started the season at the 2024 Junior Grand Prix Poland and finished seventeenth. She then finished sixth at the 2024 CS Nepela Memorial, earning new personal bests in the short program and total. She then successfully defended her Lithuanian national title. She won another gold medal at the 2024 EduSport Trophy, and she won a silver medal at the 2025 Volvo Open Cup. She then finished fourth at the 2025 Tallink Hotels Cup.

Variakojytė competed at the 2025 World Championships and scored 50.98 points. She finished twenty-fourth in the short program and advanced to the free skate by only 0.01 points. As a result, Lithuania received a quota for the 2026 Winter Olympics, marking the first time Lithuania qualified a skater for the Olympics in women's singles.

2025–26 season: Milano Cortina Olympics In July, it was announced that Variakojytė had made a coaching change from Dmitrj Kozlov to Kirill Khaliavin and Jūlija Tepliha. Variakojytė later alleged that communication from the Lithuanian Skating Federation about this process was poor and that her family had to pay for her to attend the Challenger competitions.

At the Volvo Open Cup in November, she scored just over 60 points in her short program, which was a Lithuanian national record. The following month, it was announced that Variakojytė had moved her training to Riga, Latvia, with Raimo Reinsalu and Olga Kovalkova acting as her new coaches.

According to Lilija Vanagienė, a previous president of the Lithuanian Skating Federation, Variakojytė should have been selected for the 2026 European Championships after winning the Lithuanian national title, according to criteria established beforehand. However, Jogailė Aglinskytė was sent instead, allegedly at the decision of the Federation president, Vytautas Jasuctis. Variakojytė said that she was not notified and only learned she would not be attending the European Championships from the news shortly before the competition started. Vanagienė also alleged that Variakojytė was afraid to ask the reasoning behind the decision in case she would be removed from the Olympic team. Jasuctis said that Variakojytė was not sent because she would lose valuable training time for the Olympics. She was accompanied at the Olympics by the director of the Lithuanian Skating Federation instead, in addition to Kolvakova. Reinsalu filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which was denied. Ice dancer Saulius Ambrulevičius also accompanied her after he finished competing.

During the 2026 Olympic women's singles short program, Variakojytė placed twenty-seventh in that segment and did not advance to the free skate.

Variakojytė was subsequently selected to be a flag bearer for Lithuania during the Olympic closing ceremony, along with cross-country skier Modestas Vaičiulis.

At the 2026 World Championships, she finished 31st in the short program segment and did not qualify for the free skate. She competed without either of her coaches, as neither were allowed to attend the World Championships while they were under investigation.

Programs Season Short program Free skating 2025–2026

Je te laisserai des mots Rumination Should It Be This Hard? Maison 2024–2025