Who is Richard Kilty's wife? Triple jumper Dovilė Dzindzaletaitė is a gold medalist
The 4x100m relay finals, one of the marquee events of the Olympics happens today. Amongst the qualifying teams include Richard Kilty led British team, the quartet also includes Zharnel Hughes, CJ Ujah, and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake. The 31-year-old sprinter began racing at the age of five but aimed big right from the start. He grew up experiencing poverty and even lived in a homeless hostel once with his family. But he turned his life around after realizing he had a gift.
Kilty is in the hot pursuit of gold at the men's 4x100m relay finals in Tokyo, however, his journey to the present has been full of bumps. Kilty had nearly given up his sporting career after he failed to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics due to an injury. After recovering completely in 2013, Kilty decided to quit and join the military. With the lack of national funding and no coach to guide him, Kilty had made up his mind set on walking away from sports. However, his father Kevin Kilty - who himself was a sprinter and did exceptionally well for himself as a bodybuilder and later became a bodyguard - convinced him that he needed to keep his head in the game and try out for a 60m race first.
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Kilty has been on the world stage for many years and his athletic prowess remains unchallenged. We'll talk about his career highlights in a bit, and before we do here's what you should know about his wife Dovilė Dzindzaletaitė who is a decorated track and field athlete herself who now competes as a long and triple jumper.
Who is Dovilė Dzindzaletaitė?
Dovilė Dzindzaletaitė is a Lithuanian athlete who represented her nation in the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore. Having placed first in the Lithuanian Athletics Federation Cup, Lithuanian Indoor Championships, and European U23 Championships in 2015 - Dovile is a gold medalist herself. Dovile and Kilty met at the 2015 IAAF Diamond League meeting in London. "We started to see more of each other in Beijing [at the 2015 World Championships] and then traveled back and forwards. I would go to Valencia, where she lived, to watch her train and she would come over to the northeast [of England], and then she decided to move across. In the past I was just thinking about myself, traveling around all the time, no commitment. It has been great to have a family," Kilty said.
The duo got married in September 2017 at Wynyard Hall in Billingham, United Kingdom. He shared a photo from the wedding with his fans asking them if they could spot a ghost in the window above them. “Wedding photo but look at the window - unknown guests/ghosts?? Thoughts??" he asked his fans and later added, "Some of my guests did have some spooky experiences there last week.” Speaking about it to a British outlet he said, "I haven't ever seen any ghosts in my life or experienced any so I didn't really know if I believed or not.
"But since the wedding night, lots of our guests [have said they] had strange experiences there. We also heard running in the corridor and movement in our room. The photos of the ghosts are very strange and they are in black and white and look to be wearing Victorian-style old clothing! And it has completely spooked everyone out!," he added. "We didn't see any of those people at all during our stay there which is very strange so I'm almost certain they are ghosts," he said however, many on the Internet felt the photo was doctored.
Wedding photo but look at the window 👻😮 unknown guests/ghosts?? Thoughts??some of my guests did have some spooky experiences there last week pic.twitter.com/pS1qu8uotR
— Richard Kilty (@RKilty1) October 8, 2017
Richard Kilty's achievements
Upon Kevin's insistence, Kilty trained by himself made the British national team, won the 60m world indoor title after which he secured a sponsorship deal with Nike. "I went into the [2014] world championships ranked around ninth or 10th but I thought to myself, 'You've got an opportunity here to completely change your life'. I had nothing. I was living in my dad's spare bedroom when I was in Teesside, I didn't have a car, I didn't have a kit contract. When I trained in Loughborough, I would share [British sprinter] Harry Aikines-Aryeetey's spare bedroom with a friend. We were just sleeping from house to house. So I thought to myself, 'I don't even have a home, all I've got is this opportunity in front of me.'"
Kilty became world champion in 2014 in the 60m races and has been a European champion twice. "Most sprinters would swap their careers to achieve what I've done, that's for sure. I get the vibe off people who have achieved nothing over 100m that they are like, 'Oh, it's just the 60m'. But I tell you what, I'm doing better for myself than most of them are. If the 60m is my thing, then the 60m is my thing. I don't need to do it over any other distance. It's like saying to Usain Bolt, 'Why don't you do it over 400m?' Anybody who says it's just indoors, look at how many great sprinters have failed to achieve what I have.
Asafa Powell, Linford Christie, Kim Collins, Nesta Carter all failed to win the world title. It's changed my life. To the people who try to doubt and try to speak a load of nonsense, thank you. That's why we're here right now," he said.