Ekaterina Vedeneeva

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 Irkutsk in Russia.

In 2015, Vedeneeva was selected to represent Russia together with Maria Titova at the 2015 Summer Universiade in Gwangju, South Korea. She finished on 5th place in All-around competition, tied with Elizaveta Nazarenkova.[4] She qualified to finals with two apparatuses, placing 5th in Ball final with score 17.550 and 7th in Clubs final with score 17.250.[5]

In 2018, she chose to represent Slovenia.[6] On July 31,[7] she officially received her Slovenian citizenship. This gave her the opportunity to start competing at international competitions. In August, she competed at World Cup Kazan in Russia. Katya placed 8th in All-around and qualified to two apparatus finals, where she placed 5th with Hoop (18.950) and 7th with Ball (17.800). In September, she competed at the 2018 World Championships, which was her first one. She helped Slovenia to achieve the best result in Team competition so far, placing 11th together with teammates Aleksandra Podgoršek and Anja Tomazin. She also placed 17th in All-Around Qualifications and qualified to the All-Around Final where she placed 13th, which is also the best result for Slovenia.

In April 2019 she became the first Slovenian to earn a medal at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup, a bronze medal in the ribbon final at the Tashkent World Cup.[8] That same year she became the first Slovenian to win a medal at the Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix, a silver medal in the ball final at the Holon Grand Prix in Israel.[9] 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 and secured Slovenia the first ever Olympic spot[10] in history of rhythmic gymnastics.

In 2020, she started the season at Grand Prix in Moscow, where she placed 6th in All-Around competition. The next day, she competed in all Apparatus Finals and won bronze medal in ribbon final with a score of 19.900. This was her second Grand Prix medal. She represented Slovenia at the 2020 European Championships in Kiev, Ukraine and finished on 13th place in All-around.

(Team competitions in seniors are held only at the World Championships, Europeans and other Continental Games.)

• Ekaterina Vedeneeva at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Ekaterina Vedeneeva on Instagram