Lyudmilla Stovbchataya was one of many gymnasts "on the
bubble" in 1992. Like fellow teammates Svetlana Kozlova,
Natalia Kalinina, Elena Grudneva and Roza Galieva, Stovbchataya
had a good chance of securing one of the last spaces on the
Soviet (C.I.S.) Olympic team, but a place was not guaranteed.
Unfortunately, after the battle came to bear, Stovbchataya was
left off the Olympic team. Roza Galieva secured the sixth and
final spot, and Natalia Kalinina served as the first alternate.
Following the 1992 Olympic team
trials, Stovbchataya returned to her native Ukraine where she and
the "Titan Tatianas" (Tatiana Gutsu and Tatiana Lysenko) reigned as the leaders of the newly independent
Ukraine. For example, following the preliminary portion of the
1993 World Championships, Stovbchataya was the highest ranking
former Soviet competitor (9th AA). Stovbchataya's final
competition appears to have been the 1995 World University Games,
in which captured an astouding 5 medals!
In 1996, Stovbchataya married
long-time boyfriend and Ukrainian male gymnast Vladimir Shamenko. Two days before the start of the 1996 Atlanta
Olympics, Stovbchataya gave birth to the couple's first
child, a son. Vladimir went on to earn a bronze medal
with his team at the Atlanta Olympics.
Following the Olympics, the family has been
enjoying a new life in the USA. For a couple of years the
pair coached tat Woodward Gymnastics Camp, but after
participating in an exhibition organized by the Northern
Virginia Gymnastics Academy (NVGA), Stovbchataya and
Shamenko accepted permanent positions with NVGA. Stovchataya later accepted a position with Apex Gymnastics in Leesburgh, VA.
IG online reported the March 19, 2002 birth of the couple's second child, daughter Yekaterina.
Stobvchataya was born on March 1, 1974.
. This page was created on June 4, 1999 and last updated on March 20, 2002.
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