http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/044652087X/?tag=2022091-20
1996
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316329940/?tag=2022091-20
1998
Ekaterina Gordeeva was born on May 28, 1971 in Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia). She is the daughter of Elena Lvovna Gordeeva, a teletype operator, and Alexander Alexeyevich Gordeev, a dancer for the Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble. Gordeeva's parents both worked hard and traveled so much that Gordeeva and her sister, Maria, often stayed with their grandparents.
At four, too young to try out for ballet as her father had wanted, Gordeeva was invited by a trainer at the Central Red Army Skating Club in Moscow for a skating tryout. By the time she turned five years old, Gordeeva was practicing four times a week. However, pushed by her father, Gordeeva did try out for ballet school at the age of ten, but failed. She continued skating and one year later was paired with Grinkov.
In December 1983, after a coaching change and just one year of training, Gordeeva and her skating partner Sergei Grinkov finished sixth in the Junior World Championships. The next year, they won. Gordeeva was 13 and began to see Grinkov as more than just her skating partner. In "My Sergei", Gordeeva recalled "I remember becoming aware that I found him attractive, and that it was nice to be with him." However, they never spent much off-ice time together.
In 1985, Gordeeva and Grinkov had to endure another coaching change. However, this new coach was a tyrant. Stanislav Zhuk, head coach at the Central Red Army Skating Club, pushed them too hard, overtraining Gordeeva and Grinkov while he drank every day. In spite of this, in their first senior level skating competition, Ekaterina and her partner finished second. A few months later, at the European Championships, they won.
In 1986, after petitioning the Central Red Army Skating Club to remove Zhuk as their coach, the partners found joy once again in their skating with their new coach, Stanislav Leonovich.
Gordeeva and Grinkov continued their winning streak by placing first at the Russian Nationals in 1987. However, they were disqualified at the European Championships because they refused to reskate their long program after a problem with their music. The partners quickly rebounded however, successfully defended their world title and then began their first American tour with skating promoter Tom Collins. Finally, much to the happiness of Gordeeva, she and Grinkov spent off-ice time together.
Gordeeva and Grinkov's first Olympics in 1988 was filled with nerves, homesickness, and sickness – Sergei had the flu. However, the nerves did wear off, Grinkov recovered and they skated both their short and long programs successfully and won the gold medal.
In the fall of 1988, Gordeeva was diagnosed as having a stress fracture in her right foot. She was told that she could not skate. Yet Grinkov came up with an idea. As Gordeeva remembered in "My Sergei", "Sergei asked, "So you like to skate? Come on. I'll give you a little ride." Grinkov picked up Gordeeva and carried her in his arms as he skated their program. By now they were both falling in love and on New Year's Eve, they finally kissed. Because of Gordeeva's stress fracture, they did not skate in the European Championships that year. However, they did skate at the World Championships in Paris. They won and everyone, friends, fans, and judges saw how much they were in love.
In 1990, Gordeeva turned 18 and while she had to adjust to a new grown-up body, Grinkov had to live with pain in his shoulder. At the European Championships, skating to "Romeo and Juliet", Gordeeva and Grinkov won another title. They next won the World Championships, but skated weakly, feeling burnt out. Hoping for more off-ice time together, they rejoined the Tom Collins skating tour. However, tragedy struck-Grinkov's father died of a heart attack. A few months later, Grinkov suggested to Gordeeva that they turn professional. They did and by 1991 they won their first of three World Professional Championships.
After Grinkov's shoulder surgery, they returned to the skating tour and began their new life together. However, that life was about to change. In January of 1992, Gordeeva discovered she was pregnant. The couple continued to skate for four months, then awaited the birth of their daughter.
Just 19 days after baby's birth, Gordeeva was back on the ice. By October, after deciding to leave their daughter with Gordeeva's mother in Moscow, Gordeeva and Grinkov began rehearsals for the Stars on Ice skating tour in Lake Placid, New York. Two months later, the ice skaters successfully defended their World Professional Championship title, but they missed Daria's first Christmas.
Gordeeva and Grinkov returned home to Moscow in May 1993. After petitioning the International Skating Union to reinstate their amateur status, they began training for their second Olympics. With their new long program, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, they won the Russian Nationals and the European championships. Gordeeva and Grinkov were ready for the 1994 Olympics. However, at the Olympics, they did not skate perfectly – Grinkov had done a single instead of a double jump – still they won their second gold medal.
After the Olympics, Gordeeva and Grinkov returned to the professional ice skating world and toured in the United States. However, this tour was different because they had finally found a home in Simsbury, Connecticut, United States. In December of 1994, Gordeeva and Grinkov won their third and last World Professional Championship. The couple took the spring off when Grinkov hurt his back. As they trained later that summer, Grinkov's back continued to hurt, yet the partners completed a tour with Stars on Ice. They then returned to Lake Placid, New York, United States to practice a new program – a program Gordeeva would never skate with Grinkov.
On November 20, 1995, Gordeeva and Grinkov began a run-through of their new program, but Grinkov had not put his arms around Gordeeva for their lift. In "My Sergei", Gordeeva said she thought it was his back again, but Grinkov shook his head then bent his knees and lay down on the ice very carefully. At the age of 28, Grinkov died of a heart attack.
On February 27, 1996, Gordeeva began her new life as a solo skater in a televised tribute to Grinkov, A Celebration of a Life.
Gordeeva and Grinkov's fairytale has ended. However, Gordeeva continued to skate in professional competitions and TV specials like Beauty and the Beast and Snowden on Ice, as well as in the Stars on Ice tour.
For the first time Ekaterina appeared on the ice with her daughter Daria in 2003. The pair performed a duet during a Mother's Day show and took the ice together several times since then.
In 2007, Gordeeva starred in Skate for the Heart, a show designed to raise awareness of heart disease.
During the period from 2008 to 2009 Ekaterina returned to pair skating. She participated in a Russian reality television show "Ice Age 2".
Ekaterina was paired with Valeri Bure in figure skating reality show Battle of the Blades in 2010.
In November 2010 Gordeeva rejoined Stars on Ice.
Kulik, her second husband, and Gordeeva opened Kulik's Skating, an ice rink, in 2012.
In addition to her skating, Gordeeva has ventured into coaching and choreography.
Ekaterina Gordeeva received many awards during her career as an ice skater.
She attained First Place award for pairs figure skating during World Figure Skating Championships in 1986, 1987, 1989, and 1990.
Gordeeva also received gold medals during the XV Olympic Winter Games and XVII Olympic Winter Games for pair skating.
In 1994 Ekaterina was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People Magazine.
Quotations:
"Sometimes it bothers me that people now only recognize me because of tragedy. But I've come to understand that people really care and worry for me. I feel I should say to every person I meet, "I'm fine. Daria's fine. Life goes on."
"So I step into the future, as bravely as I'm able, with my heart longing for a time I'll never see again."
"Through everything when you have these experiences in life it is important to remember the simple fact that family is always the main thing and most important part of your life."
"She (Daria) has Sergei's wide and ready smile, so beautiful to me."
"To come back on the ice was hard, and at the same time it was kind of a healing process."
"The first gold medal we had won for the Soviet Union. This one we won for each other."
Quotes from others about the person
"Ekaterina is a very elegant snowflake, but one that is made of steel."
Gordeeva married Grinkov on April 20, 1991. He died on November 20, 1995. Their daughter, Daria Sergeyevna Gordeeva-Grinkova, was born on September 11, 1992, in Morristown, New Jersey, United States.
In 2002 Gordeeva married Ilia Kulik, a Russian figure skater. But in 2015 the couple divorced.
Ekaterina has a daughter from the second marriage: Elizaveta Ilinichna Kulik.
