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Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia was the home of 1996 Summer Olympic Games. The Games are commemorated in its central Cetennial Olympic Park that is full of memorials reminding Olympic games. Three of these memorials also have Lithuanian details.

Quilt of Olympic Spirit has the names of every Olympic medal winner inscribed on them. In Atlanta, the Lithuanian National Basketball Team has won bronze medals, so 12 of these names are Lithuanian: Arvydas Sabonis, Rimas Kurtinaitis, Darius Lukminas, Saulius Štombergas, Eurelijus Žukauskas, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Mindaugas Žukauskas, Gintaras Einikis, Artūras Karnišovas, Rytis Vaišvila, Tomas Pačėsas. Unfortunately, the time has made some of them barely legible.

Some of the names of the 1996 Lithuanian National team basketball players on the Quilt of Olympic Spirit in Atlanta

Some of the names of the 1996 Lithuanian National team basketball players on the Quilt of Olympic Spirit in Atlanta

Another memorial is dedicated to the Paralympic games that took place in Atlanta right after the Olympic games concluded. There, 8 Lithuanian athletes are inscribed as they have won medals (7 in athletics and 1 in judo). The athletes are listed by sport, then by surname (alphabetically) and their names are written in the color of the medal they have won. The commemorated Lithuanian Paralympic medallists are Aldona Grigaliūnienė (gold, long jump), Malda Baugartė (gold, discus throw and shot put), Kęstutis Bartkėnas (silver, 5 km run), Vytautas Girnius (silver, javelin throw), Saulius Leonavičius (bronze, 1500 m run), Kęstutis Bartkėnas (bronze, 10 km run), Rolandas Urbonas (bronze, shot put), Sigita Markevičienė (bronze, 800 m, and 1500 m run), Jonas Stoškus (bronze, judo 78 kg). Aldona Grigaliūnienė has only her initial inscribed as her name was too long.

A part of the memorial that includes Saulius Leonavičius surname

A part of the memorial that includes Saulius Leonavičius surname

The third Lithuanian-related monument is the Quilt of Nations, the ceiling of which includes the flag of every country that has participated in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games. They have been added alphabetically and so the Lithuanian tricolor is between Liechtenstein and Luxemburg.

Quilt of Nations memorial

Quilt of Nations memorial

The ceiling of the Quilt of Nations memorial

The ceiling of the Quilt of Nations memorial

Currently, Atlanta is the largest city in the southeastern USA. As such, it has attracted numerous Lithuanians (~2000), both new immigrants from Lithuania and Lithuanian-Americans from other parts of the USA, who have transmigrated to Atlanta from the Northeast or Midwest because of work or business opportunities. However, as this external or internal migration happened relatively recently, there is no traditional Lithuanian heritage in Atlanta or Georgia (Lithuanian churches, clubs, cemeteries, etc.).

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