In 2020(1), Justine Murdock competed at the US Olympic Trials. In 2024, Murdock was entered in US Olympic Trials but earned Lithuanian citizenship after already entering in US Trials. Instead, Murdock represented Lithuania at the 2024 European Championships.
The 21-year-old first earned her US Olympic Trials cut at age 16, at the 2019 NCSA Championships, swimming a 2:12.90 in prelims of the 200 backstroke. Later in the meet, she earned her second Trials cut, swimming a 1:02.35 in prelims of the 100 backstroke.
With COVID-19 pushing the 2020 Olympic Trials to 2021, her 200 backstroke time was fast enough to compete in Wave II Trials. The cutline for Wave II Trials was a 2:12.94. Murdock went on to finish 36th in the 200 back and 58th in the 100 back at Wave II Trials.
In April 2022, Murdock swam at the US International Team Trials, swimming a personal best of a 2:11.73 in prelims of the 200 backstroke for 11th before swimming a 2:11.87 in finals for 13th. She also swam a personal best in the 100 back (1:01.72, 19th) and 50 back (28.81, 19th). That same spring, her grandma of Lithuanian descent passed away which was when Murdock began to pursue the process of potentially swimming for Lithuania.
“I’ve always been talking about making the switch and gaining citizenship, but it didn’t really go into play until March 2022 when my grandma passed away. With her passing, it made me realize that this was something I wanted to do in both of my grandparents’ honor and so I started the citizenship process. I reached out to the Lithuanian Swimming Federation, who was nothing but welcoming to me.”
Starting the process in 2022 took almost two years for the process to become complete.
“When I started looking into the citizenship process throughout the year of 2022 we weren’t sure how long it was gonna take. We submitted the official documents beginning in March 2023 and that was when I reached out to the Lithuanian Swimming Federation. It took about a year to get citizenship. I ended up getting my citizenship in February 2024 and then proceeded to get my passport shortly after that in order to be able to represent Lithuania. During that time I qualified for the European Championships based on the Westmont Pro Series, so I was all set to have the sporting citizenship established for Lithuania.”
Competing in her first meet for Lithuania, Murdock set two new National Records. She swam a 28.75 in semifinals in the 50 backstroke to tie for a 9th place finish. She broke the previous record of a 28.76. She also earned her first international final swim after she won the swim-off for 9th and a scratch bumped her into the final. The next day, Murdock swam another Lithuanian record, posting a 1:01.59 in the 100 backstroke breaking another Lithuanian National Record by 0.01. That was just off her personal best time of a 1:01.46 that she swam in July 2022.
“The records were times that were very much around my best times and times I knew that I was capable of re-swimming. Coming into the European Championships becoming a national record holder was one of my goals. My main goal though was just to represent Lithuania to the best of my ability.”
Murdock continued, “When I set the Lithuanian record in semi-finals of the 50 backstroke by 0.01 seconds, I was nothing but super grateful and excited to have established my name in the Lithuanian record book.”
The rising senior at Northwestern Univeristy will look to take this international experience and build off of it.
“Having this international experience under my belt was amazing. It was a great first meet for me to represent Lithuania, I gained a lot of experience racing and becoming more confident competing at an international level. My coach, Rachel Stratton-Mills and Northwestern as a whole have been so supportive of me as I work towards my future goals of competing internationally for Lithuania more in the future, so I hope to take back what I learned to help Northwestern improve at the same time. I think this experience really broadened my perspective on the swimming community, and I hope to continue swimming for as long as I feel that I can perform at my best.”
My grandma was 1st in her family born here, escaping Latvia before things went bolsheviky. Valērijs Kalmikovs convinced me I’d be wasting my time, with his times 🤣
Let’s go Justine! So so proud of all of the hard work you have put in. The most deserving of recognition!
Have fun and enjoy having a national record for a few months or year/two and having to file a US Tax Return the rest of your life regardless of Lithuanian citizenship.
I think that this may have been more of a commentary on US taxation laws than her swimming for Lithuania…
She can always renounce her US citizenship
No-one from smaller countries ever seem to want to honour their grandparents from more competetive sporting nations…
Being given the opportunity is a big cheat code (coming from someone who has used it).
There’s examples of people choosing the more competitive option though. For example, Matt Grevers, could’ve represented the Netherlands and would certainly have had an easier time qualifying and setting records there than in the US
Mitch D’Arrigo, Darian Townsend, Santo Condorelli all went from representing other countries to (trying) to represent USA.
I think Gabi Albiero and Jay Litherland could have sought other country’s if they wanted to.
Missy Franklin and Cody Miller could have represented Canada.
All of these examples people are using are massively missing the point. Franklin, Grevers, Miller Albiero, Litherland and whoever else grew up in America and went through the entire system, they probably didn’t even know they had the chance to swim for someone else. The girl in the article has never made a US team and a fair way into her career she decides to compete for a country she probably hasnt set foot in.
Pretty sure Missy Franklin knew she could’ve competed for Canada… she visited often enough with her parents.
When you know you’ll never get a spot in the US national team (even as part of a relay) and have the opportunity to swim for another country, I think it’s pretty natural to want to make the switch. A swimmer’s golden years in the sport are numbered and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to make the most of it
On the flip side, representing the US in a 100 is a pretty much sure fire way to get a relay medal at the OG and WC, even as a prelim swimmer
A lot of international talent would be swimming in relay medals if they had the chance to swim for the US