Reed, Ambrulevicius deserve to represent Lithuania at Olympics – parlt speaker

VILNIUS – The issue of granting Lithuanian citizenship to American ice dancer Allison Reed should be reconsidered after the successful European Figure Skating Championships, Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen says.

"Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius, who represented Lithuania at the European Figure Skating championships, have proved that they are worthy of representing our country at the 2026 Winter Olympics," she said in a comment sent to BNS on Tuesday. "That is why I think it is really worth getting back to the question of granting citizenship to Allison Reed."

Reed and Ambrulevicius won a bronze medal at the European Figure Skating Championships in Kaunas over the weekend.

Lithuanian MP Dalia Asanaviciute, representing the ruling conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, has drawn up an appeal to President Gitanas Nauseda on granting Reed Lithuanian citizenship by way of exception.

Reed told BNS on Monday that she was currently focusing on the upcoming world championships in Montreal and afterwards she intends to decide whether to ask Nauseda for Lithuanian citizenship for a third time.

Ambrulevicius told BNS that citizenship would allow his partner to present Lithuania to an even wider audience.

The presidential office told BNS on Monday Reed's application for Lithuanian citizenship would be evaluated upon receipt.

So far, Nauseda has rejected Reed's two applications for granting Lithuanian citizenship by way of exception, last year and in 2022. It was then stated that Reed's applications were rejected because she had failed to prove her outstanding merits to the Republic of Lithuania.