Ekaterina Olegovna Vedeneeva (Russian: Екатерина Олеговна Веденеева; Slovene: Jekaterina Olegovna Vedenejeva; born 23 June 1994)[1] is a Russian-born Slovenian individual rhythmic gymnast (competing for Slovenia since 2018, having previously competed for Russia).[2]
She made her debut for Slovenia in August 2018 at the World Cup event in Kazan, Russian Federation.[2] On the national level, she is a four-time (2019, 2021, 2022, 2024) Slovenian National all-around champion. In 2021, she became the first Slovenianrhythmic gymnast to compete at the Olympics when she competed at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and she competed again at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where she qualified for the final. She is the first Slovenian rhythmic gymnast to win a medal at the European and World Championships, and the first Slovenian gymnast of any discipline to win a medal in the history of The World Games.
Career
Her mother, Julia Vedeneeva, has coached rhythmic gymnastics and encouraged her to take up the sport.[3] She started training rhythmic gymnastics in her hometown of Irkutsk in Russia and later moved to Novogorsk, where the main training center for rhythmic gymnastics in Russia is located.[4]
In 2015, Vedeneeva was selected to represent Russia, together with Maria Titova, at the 2015 Summer Universiade in Gwangju, South Korea. She finished in 5th place in the all-around competition, tied with Elizaveta Nazarenkova.[5] She qualified to finals with two apparatuses, placing 5th in the ball final with a score of 17.550 and 7th in the clubs final with a score of 17.250.[6]
2017-2021 Olympic cycle
2018
In 2018, she chose to represent Slovenia.[7] She moved to Ljubljana with her coach.[4] On July 31,[8] she officially received her Slovenian citizenship. This gave her the opportunity to start competing at international competitions. In August, she competed at World CupKazan in Russia. Vedeneeva placed 8th in the all-around and qualified to two apparatus finals, where she placed 5th with hoop (18.950) and 7th with ball (17.800). In September 2018, she competed at her first World Championships. She helped Slovenia to achieve their best result ever in the team competition, placing 11th together with teammates Aleksandra Podgoršek and Anja Tomazin. She also placed 17th in the all-around qualifications and qualified to the final. She placed 13th, which was also the best result at that time for Slovenia.[4]
2019
In April 2019 she became the first Slovenian to earn a medal at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup, achieving a bronze in the ribbon final at the Tashkent World Cup.[9] At the 2019 European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, in Baku, Azerbaijan, she qualified for the club final, where she finished in 7th place. That same year, she became the first Slovenian to win a medal at the Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix after winning a silver medal in the ball final at the Holon Grand Prix in Israel.[10] At the 2019 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, she qualified to the individual all-around final, where she placed 17th with total score of 78.650, just missing out on an Olympic berth by one place.[11]
2020
In 2020, she started the season at Grand Prix in Moscow, where she placed 6th in the all-around competition. The next day, she competed in all of the apparatus finals and won a bronze medal in the ribbon final with a score of 19.900. She represented Slovenia at the 2020 European Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine and finished on 13th place in the all-around competition.
2021
In 2021, she started the season at the Grand Prix stage in Moscow, where she placed 8th in the all-around competition and qualified to all the apparatus finals. She won a bronze medal in the ribbon final with a score of 22.050. During the 2021 World Cup series, Vedeneeva qualified for an Olympic berth as the highest ranked eligible gymnast who had not already qualified for the Olympics, in front of Uzbekistan's Sabina Tashkenbaeva and Japan's Chisaki Oiwa.[12] At the Moscow World Challenge Cup, she won a bronze medal in the all-around competition - the first World Cup all-around medal for Slovenia. The following day, she also won three more bronze medals in ball, clubs and ribbon in the apparatus finals.
At the 2020 Olympic Games (delayed and held in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic), Vedeneeva finished sixteenth in the qualification round for the individual all-around final.[13] She was the first rhythmic gymnast to represent Slovenia at the Olympics.[14]
In October 2021, she competed at the 2021 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan, qualifying to the all-around final and finishing in 12th place. She also qualified for the ribbon final, achieving 7th place. It was the first time that a Slovenian gymnast had managed to advance to a world championship apparatus final.[15]
Vedeneeva was the first Slovenian rhythmic gymnast to compete at a World Games at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, USA. She placed 4th in the hoop and ribbon finals and took a historic bronze medal in the clubs final.
On 14–18 September 2022, Vedeneeva competed at her fourth World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She qualified to the ball, clubs and ribbon finals and placed 6th, 8th and 3rd in them respectively. Her bronze medal with the ribbon was her first World Championships medal and also the first medal for Slovenia at an Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships.[16][17] In the individual all-around qualifications, she took 6th place and advanced to the final, where she finished in 7th place, her best result to that date.
2023
Vedeneeva began her 2023 season on 17 March by appearing at the World Cup in Athens. She finished 7th in the all-around final, won a gold medal in the ribbon final, and was 6th in clubs and 4th in ball. She also competed at the World Cups in Sofia (31 March - 2 April, 9th in the all around and 6th in ball); Tashkent (14-16 April, 3rd in ball, and 4th in the all-around, clubs, ribbon and hoop); Baku (21-23 April, 12th in the all-around, 8th in clubs and 4th in ribbon); and Milan (21-23 July, 9th in the all-around competition, 4th in ribbon and 7th in clubs).[18]
At the 2023 European Championships in May, Vedeeneva finished 6th in the all-around final, 4th with the ribbon, and 3rd with clubs. The bronze medal was her first European Championships medal and also the first won by a gymnast representing Slovenia.[19] In addition, she appeared at the World Challenge Cup in Cluj Napoca (14-16 July, finishing 9th in the all-around and 5th in clubs).[18]
At the 2023 World Championships in August, Vedeeneva she scored 97.550 in qualification, earning herself an Olympic spot and all-around final place and also qualifying for the ball and hoop apparatus finals (where she finished 8th and 6th respectively). At the competition, she changed her ball routine from music performed by Russian and Putin-ally Philipp Kirkorov to a song by the Ukrainian Mariya Chaykowskaya.[20] Vedeeneva also qualified to the ribbon final, where she beat the score of Italy's Sofia Raffaeli by 0.05 to end in third place. She thus defended her 2022 World Championship bronze medal. She finished 9th in the all-around final.[21]
2024
Vedeneeva began her 2024 season at the Grand Prix in Marbella, Spain. She was sixth in the all-around and won silver in the ribbon final behind Stiliana Nikolova. She also won bronze medals in the ball and hoop finals.[22][23] At the Athens World Cup in Palaio Faliro, Greece, she placed 4th in the all-around and qualified to the clubs final, where she again placed 4th. She competed at Grand Prix Thiais at the end of March and won the bronze medal in the all-around behind Takhmina Ikromova and Hélène Karbanov. In April, she finished 4th in the all-around at Tashkent World Cup and qualified to all four finals.
On 3–5 May, Vedeneeva competed at the inaugural 2024 European Cup Baku, where she took 6th place in the all-around qualifications and qualified to all apparatus finals. Two weeks later on May 18, she won her fourth national title. She said that she was very happy with her performance and that she had wanted to show she was well-prepared for the 2024 European Championships being held the week after.[24]
At the European Championships, Vedeneeva finished in 11th place in the all-around final after a drop at the end of her clubs routine and having a knot in her ribbon routine. Vedeneeva expressed satisfaction with her stronger performances with the ball and hoop but dissatisfaction with her score for the hoop, accusing the judges of bias. She said, "There were six European championships in my career, and they were all very biased, and not just to me. The scandal that took place yesterday with the license for the Olympic Games reaffirms the full subjectivity of our sport", referencing the Polish Gymnastics Federation's accusation that one of their gymnast's scores were unfairly lowered to prevent her from winning the Olympic quota available at the Championships.[25] Vedeneeva qualified for one apparatus final, hoop, and came in 5th place.[26]
Vedeneeva competed at the Milan World Cup in late June. She came in sixth in the all-around and qualified for three of the four apparatus finals. The last day of the competition, June 23, fell on her 30th birthday, for which she was presented flowers.[27]
On August 8–9, she represented Slovenia at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, where she was the first Slovenian gymnast to qualify to the individual all-around final. In the finals, she placed 6th. Afterward, she said that it was the best performance she could give and that she was not immediately planning on retiring, although she was unsure of whether she would continue for another four years.[28]
Gymnastics technique
Vedeneeva is known for the strength of her classical ballet technique and her pivot turns in various positions. She has also discussed the challenges of both incorporating enough apparatus difficulty elements in a routine to gain a high enough difficulty score to be competitive and preserving the artistry of rhythmic gymnastics in the newly open-ended marking system of the 2016-2021 quad which, she believes, prefers the former.[29]
Q = Qualifications (Did not advance to Event Final due to the 2 gymnast per country rule, only Top 8 highest score); WR = World Record;WD = Withdrew;NT = No Team Competition;DNS = Did Not Start
