Vitali ROMANENKO

Born in a small village near Kyiv, Ukraine, Vitaliy Romanenko’s family fled to Novosibirsk in 1940 to escape World War II. Romanenko voluntarily enlisted with Red Army in 1943, when he was 17-years-old and stayed with the force for nearly 50 years, retiring during the fall of the Soviet Union as a colonel. He took up sport shooting in 1948 and was on the Soviet national team from 1953-65. Romanenko won the 1956 Olympic running target gold medal, won nine World Championships (1954 – individual running target single, team running target single and double; 1958/1961/1962 – team running target single and double) and European champion four times (1955/1959 – team running target single and double). He also won 20 Soviet titles between 1954-64. After finishing his sporting career, Romanenko worked as a shooting coach with the Soviet national and Olympic teams, with his most famous pupils, Yakiv Zhelezniak and Aleksandr Gazov, winning Olympic titles.