Jevgenij Šuklin

In late September 2022, Šuklin married his fiancée, Jolanta, and the couple’s wedding ceremony took place in the United States.

Jevgenij Šuklin was born on 1985-11-23 in the city of Glazov, Russia.

In 2019, he earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from Mykolas Romeris University.

In 2010, he obtained a bachelor’s degree from Vilnius Pedagogical University (now part of Vytautas Magnus University’s Education Academy).

As a teenager, he arranged with his school to skip the 12th grade in order to devote all his time to canoe training.

He was a successful canoe sprint athlete, winning multiple World and European Championship medals for Lithuania.

At the age of 10, after watching the Olympic Games on television, Šuklin resolved to become an Olympic champion – a dream that others initially greeted with laughter and skepticism.

After retiring from professional sports, he became an entrepreneur in Visaginas – opening a pizzeria and even establishing his own small brewery in the city.

From 2018 to 2023 he worked as the Commercial Director of a private company, UAB “Moldeks.”

In February 2016, Šuklin and business partner Ivan Chomenko opened a restaurant called “Rendez Vous” in Visaginas.

He began canoe sprint training in 1996, at around age 11, under coach Vladimir Suchorukov (who coached him until 2009).

Since December 17, 2024, he has also served as a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Relations Group with Canada in the Seimas.

Since December 10, 2024, he has been a member of the Seimas’ Inter-Parliamentary Relations Group with the Nordic countries.

He has been serving as a Member of the Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament) since November 14, 2024.

In April 2023, he was elected by the Visaginas council to serve for about a month as the interim Mayor of Visaginas.

In January 2022, Šuklin and his local electoral committee “Visaginas – tai mes” (Visaginas – That’s Us) joined the Liberalų sąjūdis party, along with six Visaginas council members.

He served as a member of the Visaginas Municipal Council from 2014 until 2024.

He is also a member of the Seimas Youth and Sports Affairs Commission, a position he assumed on December 4, 2024.

Since November 19, 2024, he has been a member of the Seimas Health Affairs Committee.

In the second round of the 2024 Seimas elections, Šuklin won the Nalšios Šiaurinė single-member constituency by securing 5,906 votes (51.36%), narrowly defeating LVŽS candidate Gintautas Kindurys (5,594 votes, 48.64%).

In the 2024 parliamentary election, Šuklin won the single-member Nalšios Šiaurinė constituency in a runoff, defeating incumbent Algimantas Dumbrava (of the LVŽS party) to secure the seat for the Liberals’ Movement.

In 2024 he was elected to the Seimas from the single-member Nalšios Šiaurinė constituency (No. 52) as the Liberalų sąjūdis candidate.

Šuklin ran for Visaginas Mayor in 2019 as an independent candidate. He finished third in the first round with 24.81% of the vote – narrowly missing the runoff by about 1.4 percentage points behind the second-place candidate.

Šuklin’s local electoral committee performed strongly in the 2019 Visaginas municipal elections, securing six seats in the city council – a level of representation that later moved with him into the Liberalų sąjūdis.

In the 2019 Visaginas municipal council elections, Šuklin led the independent committee “Visaginas – tai mes” and personally garnered 822 first-preference votes, the highest on his committee’s list (helping the group win multiple council seats).

As a member of the Seimas (since 2024), Šuklin receives a state-paid salary; as of 2024, the base monthly salary for an MP is approximately €3,500 gross (estimated).

As a Visaginas municipal councilor (2014–2023), Šuklin’s role was part-time and initially unpaid beyond expense stipends. Only from mid-2023 did a new law introduce fixed salaries for councilors (roughly €600 net per month), a change that took effect just as his council tenure was ending.

He serves as the president of the "Šuklino Olympic Sports Club", an association dedicated to sports events.

In 2018, he became the president of the Lithuanian Dragon Boat Federation, through which he has organized sporting events like a popular dragon boat festival in Visaginas.

In 2019, the International Olympic Committee disqualified Šuklin for doping, stripping him of his 2012 Olympic silver medal.

Šuklin became the first Lithuanian athlete ever to have an Olympic medal taken away for a doping violation.

The reanalysis of Šuklin’s 2012 Olympic doping sample detected the banned steroid dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (Turinabol).

In mid-2019, facing the return of a €58,000 state prize and a BMW car he’d received for his Olympic medal, Šuklin wrote an open letter to Lithuania’s President, Government, and National Olympic Committee seeking financial help to fight his disqualification.

After his 2019 doping disqualification, Šuklin was obliged to relinquish those Olympic rewards – the €58,000 cash prize and the BMW – effectively stripping him of the benefits he had received for the 2012 medal.

After the disqualification, Šuklin publicly denied knowingly using any banned substances, insisting he had never taken doping in his career.

Šuklin has declared that he would not want to live anywhere else other than Visaginas, calling it a wonderful natural place that has "enchanted" him.

He was recognized as Lithuania’s Sportsman of the Year in 2014.

At the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Šuklin achieved two gold medals in canoe sprint by winning both the 200 m and 500 m events.

He claimed the gold medal (European champion title) in the 200m canoe sprint at the 2013 European Championships.

In 2013, he received the Order “For Merit to Lithuania” (Commander's Cross) following his Olympic success.

He won an Olympic silver medal in the men’s single canoe sprint (200m) at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

He had the honor of serving as Lithuania’s flag bearer during the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

For winning an Olympic silver medal in 2012, Šuklin received a state prize of €58,000 and a new BMW car from the Lithuanian government.

In 2010, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.

At age 17, Šuklin won a World Junior Championship title in canoe sprint (C-1 200 m), which helped position him as a contender for the 2004 Athens Olympics.