EU – Baltic States, Forum, Legislation, Lithuania

Photo: seimas.lt

According to the FIBA president, during his visit he wanted to personally study the mystery of why Lithuania, a country with a population of a mere 3 million, had achieved so much in basketball and how this experience could be replicated in other federations.

The speaker of the Seimas commended the significant international acclaim of Lithuania in basketball, but said that the country still suffered from a lack of opportunities for all to engage in their favourite sports.

"With a strong basketball base and experience, we should be raising a talented generation of future basketball players from an early age. This is the more so since we have a large number of basketball leaders and acclaimed players who inspire young people to get the best results, as demonstrated by the commendable achievements of the Lithuanian junior basketball team. It is also important to go beyond what we already have: young people in larger cities and towns enjoy access to their favourite sports, while opportunities to do so for children in smaller settlements are still very limited. Attention must be paid to overcoming this problem. It is only after we tackle this that we can talk about Lithuania as a genuine basketball country," the speaker of the Seimas said.

The meeting with the speaker of the Seimas was also attended by Arvydas Sabonis, President of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, Mindaugas Spokas, Secretary General, and Edis Urbanavicius, Director General of the Department of Physical Education and Sports.