Career
She also competed at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics in several events, but was eliminated in the preliminaries. During her career she set 29 national records in the 50–200 m backstroke and various relay events. Amshennikova was born in Komsomolsk, Ukraine, to Olga Oleksandrovna (Ukrainian: Ольга Олександрівна), a competitive swimmer, and Vitali Alekseevich (Ukrainian: Віталій Олексійович), an amateur track and orienteering athlete.
Her brother Eugene (Ukrainian: Женя) started with swimming but then became a competitive shooter.
In 1997, her local pool was closed for reparations and Iryna moved to Kiev, where she studied and trained in a boarding school. In 2004 she relocated to Zaporizhia to train with the coach Anatoly Zhuravlev.
She graduated from the National University of Physical Education and Sports of Ukraine.
