20 November 2025
Migle in the middle: The Lithuanian teenager who hopes to keep the legacy going
It all started by watching the Winter Olympics on the television with her dad seven years ago, and now the 18-year-old Migle Kiudyte is playing against the best on the continent.
A father–daughter bond was formed over curling, deciding to try the sport through her dad’s work colleague, who was a curling coach. Living in Lithuania’s second city of Kaunas, she was fortunate enough to practise once a week on hockey ice, a privilege that the capital city Vilnius cannot afford.
Inspired by the Olympic Games
And soon she was embarking on four-hour-long car journeys to neighbouring Latvia to compete in tournaments in its capital city Riga and take part in extra training on dedicated curling ice. A dedicated youngster, she was then invited to join the women’s national team in 2023 under the guidance of the nation’s most experienced curler, Virginija Paulauskaite. The skip first got on the ice in 2004, three years before Kiudyte was born.
The age gap then was 35 years between the 16-year-old Kiudyte and the 51-year-old Paulauskaite, a generational difference felt across the Baltics between those who grew up under Soviet occupation and those born in an independent nation.
This week, they head into the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2025 as the oldest and youngest players in the A-Division.
Yet this was not a major issue for Kiudyte. She said she was mostly happy to join, as she expected to have to form her own team and wait “ten or more years” to be part of the national set-up. Most of all, the sport has a way of bridging that generational divide.
“The age difference didn’t bother me much because I was quite used to playing with people older than me when I played in tournaments with women before joining this team, because there are not many young players,” said Kiudyte.
“At first, at the first Europeans, I was trying to throw my stones and just make my shots good, but the further along, the more I’ve tried to express my opinion and suggest what kind of drill we should make and just help with strategy.
“I feel that my opinion becomes more and more important and they just hear me and that I have an impact on our choices.
“At first, maybe I played more for myself, and now we are more like a team.”
Stepping into the spotlight
Admittedly a shy person, her confidence started to shine when she shared her experiences with her older teammates. She brought a new perspective, having trained with different coaches when training separately in Latvia, giving feedback based on their advice. She is also quick to praise Paulauskaite’s knowledge, saying she has “learned a lot” from her since joining.
Kiudyte would be brought in as alternate for the 2023–2024 season and in her second year was promoted to second. Now, her weekends consist of meeting her Vilnius-based teammates at a meeting point en route to Riga, where they drive to on Fridays for an evening practice session. This is followed by more sessions on Saturday and Sunday before heading back home, ready to return to work.
However, her first tournament came at the World Mixed Curling Championship 2023, just before her first European Curling Championships. It was her first time at a six-sheet rink and her first time at a large arena. She got a taste of meeting athletes from all over the world.
“It was really cool that after the games, we talked with each other and got to know each other better,” she said. “It was really cool to play against Canada and other countries.”
But the European Championships felt like a step up, with Kiudyte playing eight of the 11 games, usually in the lead position. She said she felt “more like a professional curling player” when she stepped on the ice in the B-Division. There, Lithuania were fourth in the round robin and gained promotion to the top tier when they made the gold medal game.
“I was just really excited because I never dreamed of this and it was so unexpected,” she said.
“I was just really happy because I saw those curlers only on YouTube, so it was really exciting to meet them in reality and just play against them. It just felt like we can be as good as they are.”
And those starstruck moments continued in other tournaments, where they played the Swedish rink led by Anna Hasselborg. After the game, the 2018 Olympic champion spoke to her and asked her questions about her career.
“It was just a really happy moment because she’s maybe the first female curler I got to know about.”
Rising through the ranks
Last year is where the team’s performances shone. First, the team finished eighth in the European Championships A-Division, securing the nation’s first-ever berth at the World Women’s Curling Championship. There, they were ranked 123rd in the world, 86 places below the second-lowest ranked team.
“That competition, it was quite unbelievable that we were playing there, but I never thought that we would go to the World Championship,” said Kiudyte. “It’s really hard to dream about those high-level tournaments because you see that other countries have much better conditions to prepare.”
She remembers the atmosphere in Uijeongbu, Korea, being electric and receiving support from fans who had never watched them play before. Going from long car journeys just to play on dedicated ice, to being treated like celebrities as people asked for photos and signatures, felt surreal.
“It was quite funny, because they don’t really know us, but we had that opportunity to feel like stars,” she added.
There, they would not win a game, but sometimes a defeat can feel like a victory. There were two games where they lost by one, the second of which was against one of the best teams in the world, Silvana Tirinzoni’s Switzerland.
They had levelled the contest in the fifth end with a score of three and stole two in the sixth to take the lead for the first time. Despite conceding four against the hammer, they scored one and stole again to level it at 8–8. The Swiss fourth Alina Paetz did not miss in the final end, ensuring Switzerland prevailed 9–8. Tirinzoni praised her opponents, who had one of their best performances to date.
“That game was intense,” said Kiudyte. “Maybe when we don’t expect winning against a certain team, then we relax more and just don’t stress as much.
“But I remember that when we played the last end, I was a bit nervous because I thought that maybe we can play an extra end.
“We lost, but we still were really happy. It happened almost the same at the Europeans.”
At the 2024 Le Gruyere AOP European Curling Championships they hauled Switzerland back in the final two ends, with the game ending 8–7 to the favourites in a less dramatic contest. Paulauskaite’s rink defeated Hungary 8–6 the following morning in what would be a pivotal moment for world qualification.
Tied with Estonia and Hungary on one victory apiece, Lithuania survived relegation and secured their ticket to Korea by just three centimetres, having edged out their opponents in the Draw Shot Challenge.
Lithuania enter the 2025 Europeans facing Italy, Germany, and Czechia in their first four draws.
A future leader for Lithuania
For Kiudyte, these years will be formative. Learning from a skip who will one day step down from the national set-up brings opportunity for her as a future leader of the rink, and for Lithuania, who know a bright prospect could become the cornerstone of their team for years to come.
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