Ekaterina Gordeeva

File:Katia-gordeeva.jpg

Ekaterina Gordeeva

Olympic medal record
Women's Figure Skating
	1988	Pairs
	1994	Pairs

Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Gordeeva (born May 28, 1971) is an Olympic and world figure skating champion.

Biography

Nicknamed Katia (or Katja), she was born in Moscow, Soviet Union (now Moscow, Russia) to Alexsander Alexeyevich Gordeev and Elena Levovna Gordeeva. The elder of two daughters, she has a younger sister named Maria Alexandrovna Gordeeva. Katia began skating at the age of four. Her father wanted her to be a dancer. She wanted to skate. At a time in Soviet Union history when athletic children were identified, sent to special schools, and given rigorous training in their sport, at age ten she was paired with fourteen-year-old Sergei Grinkov at the Central Red Army Club (CSKA) in Moscow. The pair won the 1985 World Junior Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado and in 1986 burst into the world skating spotlight when they won the first of their four World Figure Skating Championships. They became repeat world champions the following year and then won gold at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. After a fall in their long program, they took silver at the World Championships in 1988, but they reclaimed that title in 1989 and successfully defended it again in 1990. They turned professional in the fall of 1990. They won their first World Professional Championship in 1991, and went on to win that title two more times (1992 & 1994).

They won virtually every competition they entered. In the 31 competitions they completed at the Senior and professional levels, they finished first an impressive 24 times. After winning their first World Championship in 1986, they never finished lower than second place, and rarely took home anything but gold. They are one of the few pair teams in history to successfully complete a quadruple twist lift in international competition - at 1987 World Championships. They also completed the difficult maneuver at the 1987 European Championships, but due to a problem with Sergei's boot strap and a misunderstanding about the rules, they were disqualified from that event.

By 1989, their skating partnership had blossomed into romance and they married in April 1991 (the state wedding was on April 20, the church wedding was on April 28). The following season was the first year they toured with Stars on Ice. They skated throughout the United States and Canada with the show which ran from November 1991 through April 1992. Then, on September 11, 1992 Katia gave birth to their daughter, Daria Sergeevna Grinkova (nicknamed 'Dasha'), born in Morristown, New Jersey. Shortly after Daria's birth, Katia was back on the ice training for the new season of Stars on Ice, which debuted that November. During that year, fans were thrilled to learn that G&G, as they were known, would return to the ranks of eligible skating to compete in the next Olympics.

In 1994 Katia Gordeeva and her husband returned to Olympic competition and captured their second gold medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Oppland, Norway. After these Olympics, they returned once again to professional skating and took up residence in Simsbury, Connecticut. During the 1994-95 season, they toured, yet again, with Stars on Ice, this time as headliners. That year, Gordeeva was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine. However, tragedy struck in November of 1995, when Sergei Grinkov collapsed and died at age 28 from a massive heart attack at Lake Placid, New York while they were practicing for their upcoming performance in the 1995-96 "Stars on Ice" tour.

In February of 1996, Katia Gordeeva returned to skating, this time as a solo performer. Her first performance was a tribute skated to the music of Mahler at "Celebration of a Life", a skating show created in honor of her late husband. The same year, with the aid of author E. M. Swift, she told the story of her life in a book titled My Sergei : A Love Story. In February of 1998, the CBS television network aired her story based on the book, and in April her second book was published under the title, A Letter for Daria. Her solo skating career has blossomed with "Stars on Ice" plus she has signed various commercial endorsements. She has lent her name to two different perfumes ("Katia" and "Katia Sport"), both sold through Target Stores. She and Daria appeared in the 1997 Holiday movie "Snowden on Ice" and Katia appeared in the 1998 sequel "Snowden's Raggedy Ann and Andy Holiday Show". She has represented Target and Rolex and also appeared with Daria in a Milk Mustache ad. In 2001, she was the subject of a Lennox figurine called "Katia's Celebration of Life", which depicts her layback spin from the Mahler tribute she skated for Sergei.

On June 15, 2001, she gave birth to her second daughter, Elizaveta Ilyinichna Kulik (nicknamed 'Liza' (pronounced LEE-za), whose father is 1998 Winter Olympics men's gold medallist Ilia Kulik. The couple married in a private ceremony in San Francisco on June 10, 2002. They currently reside in Avon, Connecticut and train at the International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury, Connecticut. Katia returned to the ice after Liza's birth, and she continues to delight and charm audiences around the world at various professional exhibitions and as a guest star with Stars on Ice. In addition to her skating, she has ventured into the arenas of coaching and choreography.

References

• Gordeeva, Ekaterina. (1996). My Sergei: A Love Story. Warner Books Inc. ISBN 044652087X.

See also

• Figure skating
• Olympic medalists in figure skating
• World Figure Skating Championships
• European Figure Skating Championships

External link

• In-depth interview from 1997, hosted at the Gordeeva and Grinkov Corner website