Žalgiris people argued in the locker room about the vaccine, Geben asked his wife

Four Lithuanians from Kaunas Žalgiris – Paulius Jankūnas, Marius Grigonis, Karolis Lukošiūnas and Martinas Gebenas – were simultaneously vaccinated on Thursday at a temporary vaccination point at the Lithuanian Sports Medicine Center in Vilnius.

“There have been some discussions of this type in the team, but mainly I spoke with my wife, who works in medicine and science. She enlightened me on this and advised me to get vaccinated.

I think it really adds security and convenience – you don’t have to constantly worry about being able to infect and infect your teammates yourself. In my opinion, the vaccine has many more pros than possible cons, I have always wanted to get vaccinated if that possibility existed, ”said M. Geben.

“I think the right thing to do is to get vaccinated. The most important thing is that everyone does it and that these vaccines are sufficient. After all, most of society needs to be vaccinated,” emphasized M. Grigonis.

It is true that not all Lithuanian basketball champions think the same.

“There was a lot of discussion, both laughing and angry. In the dressing room we have all kinds of people who have their own opinion. If we get vaccinated, it means that we are not afraid, but we will see how it will be,” said P. Jankūnas.

Artūras Milaknis, Marekas Blaževičius, Rokas Jokubaitis and Lukas Lekavičius continue to apply for the Lithuanian team from Žalgiris. The latter is currently sick with COVID-19, R. Jokubaitis and M. Blaževičius had been infected with the coronavirus a little earlier.

The people of Žalgiris decided to get vaccinated on Thursday, despite the fact that the quartet from the final of the King Mindaugas Cup awaits them in Panevėžys in two days, where the Kaunas team will defend the title of the winners.

The Lithuanian team will fight for the only Olympic entry from June 29 to July 4. In the selection tournament that will take place in Kaunas.

It is true that uncertainty still surrounds both the qualifying competition and the Olympics themselves, which were already postponed a year last year due to the pandemic.

“Every athlete’s dream is to participate in the Olympic Games. I hope they happen. Of course, we must get to them first, ”said M. Grigonis.

In total, up to three hundred Lithuanian athletes and their coaches and assistants must be vaccinated on a priority basis. On Thursday, the vaccine was also received by the high jumper Airinė Palšytė, the kayaker Ignas Navakauskas, the cyclist Simona Krupeckaitė, the walker Brigita Virbalytė-Dimšienė and other athletes.

The full list of Olympians to be vaccinated is not made public.

Exceptionally, so far only Hungary has started vaccinating its athletes in the European Union without Lithuania, and many countries doubt whether it would be ethical to vaccinate athletes before the most vulnerable groups.