Yelena Rudkovskaya

Sport: Swimming

Born: 21 April 1973; Gomel, BSSR

Honors:

Honored Master of Sport of the USSR

Career highlights:

Gold (100m breaststroke), Olympic Games in Barcelona, 1992

Bronze (4×100m medley relay), Olympic Games in Barcelona, 1992

Gold medals (100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke, 4×100m medley relay), European Aquatics Championships, 1991

Bronze (100m breaststroke), European Aquatics Championships, 1993

Biography:

Yelena Rudkovskaya was born on 21 April 1973 in Gomel.

Her family had strong and healthy genes. Her father and brother were almost 195cm tall. Her mother, who never did sport, always amazed Yelena with her inexhaustible energy and endurance.

Yelena Rudkovskaya took up swimming when she was ten years old. By sports standards, she was already an overgrown child. Like many kids, she tried her hand at a little bit of everything. In winter, she put on skates and skated around the courtyard. She enjoyed the thrill of sliding down a slope. In spring, Yelena would switch to a bicycle. In the second grade, P.E. curriculum included classes in the swimming pool. Yelena learned to remain afloat, but she was not admitted to the swimming club because coaches did not see her as likely to succeed. Two years later, Yelena decided to try to join the club again to learn how to swim well in order not to embarrass herself in front of her peers on the beach.

Yelena went to the pool daily but did not take swimming seriously. In the fifth grade, she finally hot the taste of victory at the Gomel regional championships. During the warm-up, she noticed how well and fast competitors from other cities and swimming clubs swam. That upset her a bit. However, there was something even more shocking: the competitors wore perfect sports swimsuits. She was ashamed of her patched beach swimsuit. Yelena decided to do her best to beat everyone. In the 50m breaststroke, she was unrivaled and attracted attention of Leonid Kaufman, an experienced coach. The first training session in his group almost became her last. Yelena could not keep up even with the weakest students, especially in front crawl. However, she was the best in her favorite breaststroke.

Yelena snatched her first significant victory at the USSR junior championships which took place in Georgia in 1987. Yelena Rudkovskaya easily won the 200m breaststroke. That secured her a place on the national team.

A year later, she was set to perform at the European Junior Swimming Championships in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, three months ahead of the main competitions, the swimmer suffered a serious kneecap injury during a training session and had to undergo an operation. The bright prospects faded. However, Yelena Rudkovskaya did not give up and was back in excellent physical shape a month later. Her strong will was rewarded when she took a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke.

After her success at the European Junior Swimming Championships, Yelena Rudkovskaya believed in herself. When she started training with Russian coach Alexey Krasikov, Yelena improved greatly and started to rival her teammates. In 1991, she won three gold medals at the European Aquatics Championships in Athens: in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and in the medley relay. It was a good start, but the coaches did not plan to send her to the Olympic Games in Barcelona, because she did not meet the qualifying standard at the test competitions. The coaches hesitated until the last minute but decided in her favor finally and never regretted their decision.

In the heats of the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Yelena Rudkovskaya clocked the best time in the qualifications and advanced to the 100m breaststroke finals. In the finals she swam to her gold medal at full speed, leaving her competitors no chance to win. Later, Yelena said that she expected to win, because the night before she had had a prophetic dream and saw herself on the top of the podium.

After the triumph in Barcelona, Yelena’s life was interesting and busy. Having traveled around the world, Yelena Rudkovskaya settled in the town of Veendam in Groningen Province, the Netherlands. 


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