Šiauliai Anniversary Year Honorary Ambassador Ignas Vaitkus: “I Return to Šiauliai with the Greatest Joy”

Professional basketball player Ignas Vaitkus calls Šiauliai his home – this is where he grew up, began his journey as a basketball player and started a family. Although his sporting career constantly takes him to different countries around the world, he always returns to his hometown with the greatest joy. In 2022, he won silver at the World Championship with the Lithuanian men’s 3×3 basketball team, and in 2025 – gold at the FIBA 3×3 Europe Cup. This year, Ignas Vaitkus became an Honorary Ambassador of the Šiauliai Anniversary Year. In this interview, I. Vaitkus talks about sport, discipline, family, defeats, motivation and his special connection with his hometown.

You are a professional basketball player and a native of Šiauliai. What does your hometown mean to you, and which achievements in your career would you highlight as the most important?

I am from Šiauliai. My family lives here, my daughter is growing up here, and my wife is also from Šiauliai. During the season, I have to live in different places every year, but home is always in Šiauliai. We spend our summers here, my daughter goes to school here, and her grandparents live here. Everything that forms the foundation of my life is in Šiauliai. I have also played for the “Šiauliai” basketball club.

With the Lithuanian men’s 3×3 basketball team, we won a silver medal at the 2022 World Championship and gold at the 2025 FIBA 3×3 Europe Cup. I also competed in the Lithuanian Basketball League for more than ten years.

What are your plans for the near future?

At the moment, I have taken a break from 5×5 basketball. I do not know whether it will be permanent – the season ended in June. Right now, I am focusing entirely on preparing for the 2028 Olympic Games. I am training for this with the 3×3 basketball team “Raudondvaris Hoptrans”. It is one of the strongest teams in Lithuania and ranks among the leading 3×3 teams in the world. So my immediate goal is the 2028 Olympic Games.

What does being an Honorary Ambassador of the Šiauliai Anniversary Year mean to you personally?

It is a great honour. Of course, it feels good that people trust me and recognise me in this way. You always want to leave your mark on the city where you grew up. There are many celebrations and anniversary events taking place in Šiauliai this year, and I have received quite a few invitations, but unfortunately I have not been able to attend them all – it is a very busy period for me at the moment.

I believe that through my sporting activities, I try to represent my hometown as well as I can.

How much did Šiauliai contribute to shaping you as a person and as an athlete?

I would say a great deal. I also met my wife in Šiauliai, and that is an especially important part of my life. My grandparents, my mother and my sister grew up here – all the people closest to me.

I travel a lot and have probably been to almost every corner of the world. Still, I return to Šiauliai with the greatest joy because this is my home.

I grew up here. I started basketball training when I was about seven or eight years old, and I immediately fell in love with the sport. From then on, I was rarely without a basketball – even during the summers, I was constantly training and playing.

At the “Saulė” Basketball Academy, I experienced the true joy of the game for the first time. Later, coach Antanas Sireika contributed greatly to my sporting career. He is a wise person who taught me many important lessons when I was young.

And the greatest achievement of my life is my family. They are also from Šiauliai. We all grew together as people of Šiauliai and as a family. Šiauliai is the city that brought us together, so it means a great deal to me.

When did you realise that basketball was more than just a hobby for you?

Quite late. When I was about sixteen or seventeen, I realised that I wanted to play basketball. I felt that I was one of the leaders of the team, one of the better players. Being selected for the youth national team became one of the first serious steps towards becoming a professional basketball player.

When I started living on my own, I realised that my parents were investing in me, renting an apartment so that I could have good conditions. That brought a sense of responsibility. After finishing school, I had to choose – pursue my studies more seriously or continue my career in sport. Combining a sporting career with a demanding profession is not easy. But sport itself was not easy either. Until I was about twenty or twenty-one, I earned almost no income from sport. You have to work and patiently wait for your opportunity. That was when I realised that my path was about discipline, patience and hard work.

I think that even after I finish my career, I will continue exercising and taking care of myself. I have experienced so much through sport, met all kinds of people and made many different connections. I feel that I am getting the most out of sport, and I do not regret choosing this path. There have been many difficulties, but I endured them all and waited patiently – and eventually everything came together.

What matters most in professional sport – talent, discipline or perseverance?

Talent is not the most important thing. Of course, you need it, but hard work, dedication and discipline are more important. Discipline, even when it is boring, difficult or demanding, helps you move forward not only in basketball but also in life. You have to give up some time with family and friends, as well as certain forms of entertainment. When you choose the path of a professional athlete, you have to understand that something will have to be sacrificed.

This year has not been easy for me either. There is a lot of travelling to 3×3 tournaments, which means less time for my family. And I am the kind of person who finds it difficult to spend two or three weeks away from my loved ones.

But I understand that I have to sacrifice some of that time because otherwise there will be no results. Whenever I have a little more free time, I try to dedicate it to the people closest to me. It is important to be together, communicate and maintain that connection.

What is harder – losing a game or recovering from a defeat?

I would say both are equally difficult. Very recently, we suffered a painful overtime defeat against Serbia in the quarter-finals of the European Championship and our tournament came to an end. It hurts, but I have already experienced quite a few defeats throughout my career. Without defeats, there would be no joy in victory.

In both basketball and life, I try to follow one rule: if something good happens, enjoy it until midnight. Enjoy it, celebrate it. But after midnight, it is a new day, and you have to prove yourself all over again.

It is similar with a defeat – you can be sad until midnight. Then you move forward. I would also say that sometimes my loved ones – my parents, grandparents and family – take defeats harder than I do. They worry more because I have already experienced many defeats and celebrated many victories throughout my career.

So the day ends, you allow yourself to be sad, a new day begins – and you get back to work. Of course, it helps when you have someone to talk to and someone you can turn to for comfort. At the end of the day, you are grateful that you are healthy, that you can play, step onto the court, train and continue doing what you love. I even have a tattoo with a message that is roughly: someday, all of this will make sense. Sometimes it takes four or five years to realise that a particular defeat was necessary for a victory to come later.

You have achieved a great deal in sport. What motivates you most today?

Now, I would say my daughter motivates me most. My family, my daughter. She is at an age where, before every tournament, she demands: “Daddy, bring me back a medal.” Maybe she does not yet understand how much those medals mean, but when I come home after a tournament and can put a medal around her neck, it feels wonderful. She even takes it to school with her.

And if we lose, she says: “It’s okay, Daddy, you don’t need that medal, everything is fine.” Simple things like that are truly motivating.

My family is everything to me. I do it for my family, not because of what other people think. When you are a professional athlete, there is plenty of criticism and commentary. People write something and then forget about it. Only those closest to you know when you need a word of comfort and when it is better to leave you alone.

Who has had the greatest influence on you throughout your career? Once again – your family?

Good question. There were no professional athletes in my family. I climbed all those steps myself. I had excellent coaches, good role models, and everything developed naturally. Sport was the most important thing to me from childhood. I devoted every summer to sport, and I enjoyed doing it. Later, when the results start coming, they become the greatest motivation – you see that your hard work is paying off.

Is there a place in Šiauliai that brings back good emotions or holds sentimental value for you?

My family and I live near “Lapė”. We spend a lot of time there. We have a dog, so especially on summer evenings we often go for walks. It is a pleasant place where people gather to sit and spend time together. There are cafés there, as well as the “Wake” park. It is one of the places we visit most often because it is close to our home.

I looked at photos from events and from Šiauliai Days – the amphitheatre and the screens near the “Golden Boy” look impressive. I can see how the city is growing and changing.

Šiauliai is now a city where you genuinely want to live. If you want something, you do not need to travel elsewhere – you can find a spa, a cinema and plenty of other entertainment here. There are many activities for both children and adults. That makes me very happy.

Still, when I return home, what I want most is simply to be at home and go for a peaceful walk.

What would you wish the people of Šiauliai on the occasion of the city’s anniversary?

I would wish for Šiauliai to keep growing and growing.

We have friends who invest in our city, so I would like to encourage the people of Šiauliai to approach new things more openly and naturally, and to be willing to visit places beyond those they are already used to. Let us be more open to new businesses and support them.

I can see that the people of Šiauliai are active. Whenever events take place, they attract large crowds. So let us go out, enjoy our city and remain open to new things.

For further information, please contact Irma Grinevičienė, Head of the Communications Department at the Šiauliai Cultural Centre, mobile +370 671 42 955, email irma.grineviciene@siauliukc.lt.

Photos by Rolandas Parafinavičius and from the personal archive.