The lottery company Euloto and the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee (LPOK) officially extended their partnership agreement. The new accord was signed by Mindaugas Bilius, President of the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee, and Mantas Lebedžinskas, Director of Euloto. Euloto first became a partner of LPOK three years ago. The two organisations will work together at least until the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.
“We’re happy to be meeting our partners’ expectations and moving in the right direction. Partnership with Euloto has allowed us to increase financial support for athletes by 70% this year. We’ve also started several new sponsorship programmes for individual athletes and clubs. That lets athletes travel to more competitions. Those in athletics, for instance, are going to the Grand Prix in Germany – a good test of strength before the European Championship. Without our partners’ help, all this simply wouldn’t be possible,” said Mr Bilius, the head of the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee.
Last year Euloto provided the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee with 150,000 euros and became the first partner in history to allocate a five-figure sum to sports for people with disabilities. As a result, the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee was able to increase its budget several times over and thus to increase financing for sporting activities.
“The purpose of lotteries is not just to provide entertainment, but also to give people the chance to contribute to financing things that are important for society. Encouraging support for sport is part of our job, so teaming up with the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee is very important to us. During our first years of partnership we were able to support the important work that the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee is doing. I’m happy we could be part of that. We will continue to contribute to the success of the Paralympic Movement and the promotion of sports for people with disabilities,” said Mr Lebedžinskas, the head of Euloto.
At the start of 2018, the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee confirmed two lists of athletes whose training and participation in competitions will be financed with money from the new sponsorship programmes. Each list includes 10 of the country’s most skilled and high-potential athletes. In addition, for the first time, the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee has begun an incentive programme for clubs. It has also launched a sponsorship programme to which any athlete or club can apply for financial support. The total value of these projects is 73,000 euros.
The previously announced four-year strategy of the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee defines its main objective as sending a delegation of at least 17 athletes to the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2020 to represent Lithuania in 7 or 8 different sports. The long-term vision is the representation of our country in all 22 events at the summer Paralympic Games and the renewed participation of Lithuanian athletes at the winter Paralympic Games.
