Groudneva herself became internationally known much later than most female gymnasts usually do when she only really began staring in in competitions in 1991, at the age of 17.
In 1991 she finished 2nd at the European Cup and first at the Grand Prix of Rome. Yelena also finished 3rd at the Moscow Stars meet a great effort against top Soviet Competition.
Nearing the end of the year were the Indianapolis world Championships. Yelena missed out by one spot on making the team of six, and was the alternate for this competition. But Yelena was surprised that she had actually finished high enough to be alternate and it inspired her to train hard and try out for the Barcelona Olympics.
At the CIS (Commonwealth of Independant States) Cup in early 1992, after much hard training Groudneva finished sixth and grabbed the final berth on the team for the Olympics in Barcelona, beating Lyudmilla Stovbahataya for the final spot on the team.
But before the Olympics were the European Championships, Groudneva proved her worth finishing second on uneven bars and fifth on beam.
Barcelona arrived, and Yelena and her team were ready to retain their Olympic Crown. The Unified team grabbed the Olympic Gold for which they were favourites over Romania. Yelena performed well in compolsory competition, and had solid optionals on bars, beam and vault. (Her floor's opening pass was under rotated.) Yelena was the only member of the Unified Team from Russia.
On return to Russia (The Soviet Union had collapsed) she suddenly found that their was very little money in gymnastics. So she joined the TESS Troupe along with Galiyeva, Chussovitina, Lyssenko, & Gutsu whom had been her team mates in Barcelona. Unfortunetly after about a year and a half the TESS Troupe dissolved leaving her with little to do but retire. Her last prominent international competition was the Birmingham Classic in 1993, where she finished 3rd on beam and uneven bars.
Yelena was never her countries top athlete but could always be relied on to start the team off with a score that would set the better gymnasts up for a high score. Her favourite evnt was uneven bars and she also liked beam.
In her spare time she enjoys listening to music and watching movies. She has two brothers and was coached by Alexei Saditov.
Yelena Alexandrovna Groudneva is now retired from gymnastics.
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