Nationality Kazakhstan Strokes Backstroke Name Yekaterina Rudenko Height 1.75 m | Sport Swimming College team Drury Panthers (USA) Role Swimmer Weight 53 kg | |
Full name Yekaterina Olegovna Rudenko Born 16 October 1994 (age 29) ( 1994-10-16 ) Astana, Kazakhstan Coach Natalia Dolgikh
Natalia Shpileva | ||
Yekaterina Olegovna Rudenko (Kazakh: Ekaterina Olegovna Rudenko; born October 16, 1994 in Astana) is a Kazakhstani swimmer, who specialized in backstroke events. She represented her nation Kazakhstan in two editions of the Olympic Games (2008 and 2012), finished fifth in the girls' 50 m backstroke at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore, and later captured two silver medals in the 50 and 100 m backstroke at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.
Rudenko made her official debut, as Kazakhstan's youngest swimmer (aged 13) at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She competed in the women's 100 m backstroke by eclipsing an Olympic B-cut of 1:03.84 from the Kazakhstan Open Championships in Almaty. Rudenko rounded out the field to last place and forty-fifth overall in heat 2 by 0.23 of a second behind South Korea's Kim Yu-yeon in 1:04.85.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Rudenko qualified again for the women's 100 m backstroke, by lowering her FINA B-standard entry time to 1:02.60 from the same tournament. She challenged seven other swimmers on the same heat as Beijing, including three-time Olympians Anja Carman of Slovenia and Sanja Jovanovic of Croatia. She faded to seventh place by 0.09 of a second behind Hungary's Eszter Povazsay in 1:03.64. Rudenko failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed thirty-eighth overall in the preliminaries.
Two years later, at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Rudenko improved her standards with a striking silver medal double in the women's 50 and 100 m backstroke, blistering her respective personal bests of 28.04 (50 m backstroke) and 1:00.61 (100 m backstroke).
Rudenko is currently training for the Drury Panthers women's swimming and diving team under head coach Brian Reynolds, while taking up undergraduate studies at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri.