| Yekaterina Rudenko | |
| Fullname: | Yekaterina Olegovna Rudenko |
| National Team: |  Kazakhstan |
| Strokes: | Backstroke |
| Coach: | Natalia Dolgikh Natalia Shpileva |
| Collegeteam: | Drury University (U.S.) |
| Birth Date: | 16 October 1994 |
| Birth Place: | Aqmola, Kazakhstan |
| Height: | 1.770NaN0 |
| Weight: | 530NaN0 |
| Show-Medals: | yes |
Yekaterina Olegovna Rudenko (kk|Екатерина Олеговна Руденко; born October 16, 1994) is a Kazakh swimmer, who specialized in backstroke events.[1] [2] 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.[3]
Rudenko became the youngest ever swimmer (aged 13) to compete for the Kazakh team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, swimming in the 100 m backstroke. She cruised to the top of the field with a 1:03.84 to invincibly slide under the FINA B-cut (1:03.86) by two hundredths of a second (0.02) at the Kazakhstan Open Championships three months earlier in Almaty.[4] Inexperienced to the Olympic scene, Rudenko rounded out the field to last place and forty-fifth overall in heat two with a 1:04.85.[5]
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Rudenko competed for the second time in the women's 100 m backstroke, by downing her FINA B-cut to 1:02.60 at the Kazakhstan Open.[6] Rudenko touched behind the leader Tao Li of Singapore on the initial length in heat two, before fading down the stretch to save the seventh spot in 1:03.64, missing the semifinals with a much improved, thirty-eighth overall placement in the prelims.[7]
Two years later, at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Rudenko upgraded her standards with a striking silver medal double in the women's 50 and 100 m backstroke, blistering a lifetime best of 28.04 (50 m backstroke) and 1:00.61 (100 m backstroke), respectively.[8] [9] [10]
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.