Ekaterina Gordeeva

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Olympic medalist
Gordeeva and partner, late husband Sergei Grinkov compete in 1994.
Medal record
Figure skating
Competitor for  Soviet Union
Gold	1988 Calgary	Pairs
Competitor for  Russia
Gold	1994 Lillehammer	Pairs

Ekaterina Alexandrovna Gordeeva (Russian: Екатерина Александровна Гордеева) (born May 28, 1971) is a Russian (former Soviet) pair skater. With her partner and husband Sergei Grinkov, she is the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion.

[edit] Biography

Often called "Katia", Gordeeva was born in Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia) to Alexander Alexeyevich Gordeev and Elena Levovna Gordeeva. She has a younger sister, Maria Alexandrovna Gordeeva (born 1975).^{[citation needed]} Gordeeva began skating at the age of four, in skates many sizes too big, wearing multiple pairs of socks because skates small enough for her feet were unavailable in the Soviet Union.^[1] Her father wanted her to be a ballerina, but she wanted to skate.

[edit] Career

Gordeeva began figure skating at age three, when she entered Children and Youth Sports School of CSKA in Moscow.^[2] She was not a particularly strong jumper, and in August 1981,^[3] coach Vladimir Zaharov paired 10-year-old Gordeeva^[3] with 15-year-old Sergei Grinkov. At one point a coach suggested that Gordeeva pair with someone else, as Grinkov frequently missed practice. She refused, and the pair instead found another coach.^[4]

They won the 1985 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The following year they won the first of their four World Figure Skating Championships. They successfully defended their World title in 1987 and then won gold at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.^[5]

In November 1987, Grinkov caught a blade on the ice during a practice session and dropped Gordeeva on her forehead.^[6] She was hospitalized for a time. Soon after her release from the hospital, she and Grinkov began dating.^[4]

After a fall in their long program, they took silver at the World Championships in 1988, but reclaimed the title in 1989 and 1990. They turned professional in the fall 1990, winning their first World Professional Championship in 1991. They also won that title in 1992 and 1994.

Gordeeva and Grinkov won almost every competition they entered. In the 31 competitions at the senior and professional levels, they finished first 24 times, and never lower than second. They are one of the few pair teams in history to successfully complete a quadruple twist lift in international competition. They landed the difficult element with ease at the 1987 World Championships. They also completed the element at the 1987 European Championships, but due to a problem with Grinkov's boot strap and a misunderstanding about the rules, they were disqualified from that event.^{[citation needed]} They stopped performing the quad twist because it was not significantly improving their marks, making the added physical stress unnecessary.^{[citation needed]}

By 1989, the skating partnership had blossomed into romance and the two were married in April 1991. Their state wedding was on April 20, and the church wedding was on April 28. From November through April 1992, they toured with Stars on Ice for the first time. On September 11, 1992, their daughter, Daria Sergeyevna Grinkova, was born in Morristown, New Jersey. Shortly after Daria's birth, Gordeeva recommenced training for the new season of Stars on Ice, which premiered in November 1992.

When a new ISU rule allowed professional skaters to regain their amateur eligibility, the pair decided to return to eligible competition for the 1993-94 season and skate in the Olympics. In 1994, the couple won their second Olympic gold medal in Lillehammer, Oppland, Norway.^[5] Arguably the most influential, celebrated, and highly decorated pair team in the history of the sport, many consider them to be the greatest pair team ever to take the ice.^[7] They are often referred to simply as "G&G".^[8]

After the Olympics, the pair returned to professional skating and moved to Simsbury, Connecticut.^[5] During the 1994-95 season, they toured with Stars on Ice, this time as headliners.^{[citation needed]} That year, Gordeeva was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People Magazine.^[9] That summer, Gordeeva and Grinkov were chosen for induction into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame and the pair planned to return to Stars on Ice for their fourth season with the tour.

On November 20, 1995, Grinkov collapsed and died at age 28 from a massive heart attack. The pair were on the ice in Lake Placid, New York while they were rehearsing for opening night of the upcoming tour. Doctors later discovered that Grinkov had a congenital heart condition which caused his death.^[5]

[edit] Solo career

My Sergei : A Love Story Book Cover

In February 1996, Gordeeva returned to the ice, this time as a solo performer. Her first solo performance was a tribute to her late husband,^[5] skated to the 'Adagietto' section of Gustav Mahler's 'Symphony No. 5'. The number was publicly performed only twice, first at a preview performance at the Minto Skating Club in Ontario, Canada,^{[citation needed]} and then on February 27, 1996, in a televised tribute to Grinkov, called "Celebration of a Life,"^[7] in which numerous skating luminaries took part. Gordeeva has said that she felt as if she skated with Sergei that night, that she was "double strong" because she felt him with her.^[4] The same year, with the aid of author E. M. Swift, she told her story in a book titled My Sergei : A Love Story.^[1] In February 1998, CBS aired an eponymous docudrama based on the book. She published a second book in April, 1998, titled A Letter for Daria.

In 1998, she told an interviewer that "My life of great skating, and skating with him, is over, ... I don't try to go now for Olympics. I take skating for a job."^[10]

Gordeeva returned to Stars on Ice in 1996 and toured with the show every year until 2000, when she took time off to have a baby. She has returned to the tour as a guest star many times, but has never returned to full-time touring. In addition to tours and shows, Gordeeva competed successfully as a professional solo skater, finishing as high as second place at the World Professional Championships (in 1998). While she stopped competing in 2000, she continued to skate in professional skating tours, shows and competitions. While she has never returned to pair skating as a full-time endeavor, she has performed pair elements in many shows through the years with partners including Artur Dmitriev, Anton Sikharulidze, David Pelletier, and John Zimmerman. For the 1998-1999 season of Stars on Ice, she and fellow Russians Ilia Kulik, Elena Bechke, and Denis Petrov performed a quartet which showcased her pair skills, and in 1999-2000, she performed a pair duet with Kulik.

Gordeeva has signed several endorsement contracts, the most notable of which was with Target and led to two perfumes ("Katia" and "Katia Sport") which were sold through Target stores.^[11] Gordeeva and her daughter, Daria, appeared in the 1997 holiday movie "Snowden on Ice" and Gordeeva appeared in the 1998 sequel, "Snowden's Raggedy Ann and Andy Holiday Show". She has represented Rolex and also appeared with Daria in a "Got Milk?" ad.^{[citation needed]} In 2001, she was the subject of a Lenox figurine called "Katia's Celebration of Life", which depicts her performing a layback spin in the tribute she skated for Grinkov.^[12] In 2003, she appeared on the ice for the first time with Daria. The pair performed a duet during a Mother's Day show and have taken the ice together several times since then. In the Fall of 2007, the mother-daughter duo were joined in an on-ice trio by Gordeeva's younger daughter, Liza.

[edit] Personal life

On June 15, 2001,^{[citation needed]} Gordeeva gave birth to her second daughter, Elizaveta Ilinichna Kulik (nicknamed 'Liza' (pronounced LEE-za), whose father is 1998 Winter Olympics men's gold medalist Ilia Kulik. Gordeeva and Kulik married in a private ceremony in San Francisco on June 10, 2002.^[13] They resided in California for several years before moving to Avon, Connecticut in 2003.^[14] The family returned to the Los Angeles area in the Summer of 2007 and currently reside in Newport Beach. Gordeeva, Kulik, Daria and Elizaveta made their first televised appearance as a family for Kristi Yamaguchi's Friends and Family in 2005, and they have appeared in that show every year since.^{[citation needed]} In addition to her skating, Gordeeva has ventured into the arenas of coaching and choreography.^[15] She also appeared in the 2003 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.^[16]

She and her family speak only Russian at home, and Gordeeva refuses to be away from her children for longer than two weeks at a time.^[15]

[edit] Competitive highlights

Pairing with Sergei Grinkov

[edit] See also

• Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov
• Ilia Kulik

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Gordeeva, Ekaterina. My Sergei: A Love Story. Warner Books Inc., 1996. ISBN 0-446-52087-X.

[edit] External links

• Gordeeva and Grinkov Corner website
• A Kind of Magic: Ekaterina Gordeeva website

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Ekaterina Gordeeva

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