The Story Of Gordeeva & Grinkov
Ekaterina Gordeeva & Sergei Grinkov were two time olympic gold medalists & four time world champions. This website is dedicated to their MANY fans everywhere.
In 1981 the small & fragile 10 1/2 year old Katia was paired up with her partner, strong & tall, 15 year old Sergei. Their first program was to "Zorba The Greek". They skated many many more dazzling programs.
In 1987 Sergei's skate blade hits a soft patch of ice while holding Katia aloft in the starlift. Katia comes crashing down head first. She says at first she didn't feel anything but then it felt like her head was splitting apart. She blacked out and had to be rushed to the hospital. "I was very upset and I started to blame Sergei because I thought we'd miss the whole year just because of stupid ice and I thought that he wasn't careful. And then Sergei came with a bunch of flowers and that was the first time when I saw him SO dissapointed and nervous and...he didn't smile. He always smiled and was so loose and here he came with the flowers and he's very upset and the first thing he say is 'sorry'. I remember very well that Sergei just kept sitting in the hallway and waiting for me. That was SO amazing for me to see him with such feelings." Elena Gordeeva (Katia's mother) had this to say about the incident, "I never knew a young man could be so tormented. In the hospital corridor, he was blaming himself. He thought it was all his fault."In 1988 at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, G&G (as fans call them) won their first olympic gold medal. After winning, Sergei left Katia to go celebrate their achievement with friends of his own. Katia says, "It little upset me but I couldn't say 'wait a minute why you not taking me with you'." Katia's parents then treat her to a vacation on the beaches of the Black Sea. While she's away Sergei sent her a gift to the apartment she was staying at. But when Katia returns to the training center, a stress fracture in her foot makes it unable for her to practice. "I would go and see how Sergei skate every day. The one practice he was jumping and did nice double axels and tripple toes and I was feeling very upset & jealous that I couldn't skate. And once he came up to me and said 'would you like to skate?' and I said 'of course I wanna skate' and he said 'let's go skate'. And he'd just take me in his hands and just skate with me a little bit. He let me feel that everything was just perfect and if you can't skate I'm gonna hold you all the time."
New Years Eve 1989 Sergei, Katia, and Sergei's friend Alexandre Fadeev go to a sauna. Katia explained, "So we sit at the table and we talk and we had Sergei make a little toast. After Alexandre left Sergei just said something, I feel a little bit shy and I wasn't sure because I didn't feel very comfortable to be one-by-one with him and he just said 'Katia I have to talk to you about something, I have to say you very important thing' and I said 'Okay, let's talk' Sergei just said 'Katia why don't we kiss?' After I left the sauna I was differant person. I was totally differant person. Because I could not believe it's happened with me. I could not believe that,why, I was thinking why I was such a lucky girl."Katia & Sergei had begun their love that would be cherished by hearts around the world in years to come.
Everything in 1990 seems to be going well until Sergei recieves a call from Moscow telling him that his father died from a heartattack. His death was a wake up call for Sergei that Katia & him make a life together. "We were walking and Sergei said 'I want to give you a ring so that you will always remember me and you will always wear this' so we went to the antique store and he got me this ring, we chose it together, he liked it & I liked it."
The wedding was in April of 1991. A small gathering with friends and family. Sergei, 24, Katia, just 19. Katia remembers, "Everything was beautiful. Sergei looked wonderful and we had so many friends. We had to dance the waltz and I don't remember if we ever danced the waltz together on the floor. So that was quite an experience...but Sergei hold me very strong and we danced it. But I remember I was afraid that everyone was going to laugh at us because we don't know how to dance the waltz."
To the end of 1991 the couple recieved their biggest surprise yet. Katia tells, "He wasn't home a lot, and he wanted to go see friends and to go hang out with them and I was so mad at him and I said 'you can go see your friends again and you don't even wanna know that I'm pregnant!' and then I couldn't believe his reaction, he was telling me something too but then he stopped and was like 'oh really, it's what you just said?' and I said 'I maybe pregnant and I have to go see doctor again' and he said 'why you didn't say it?' and I said 'because I didn't know' and he was so happy right away and he didn't want to talk about anything anymore, he just wanted to hold me all the time. And he said 'that's great'". Skating is now the lowest priority for G&G have started down the path of parenthood.
In early morning of September 11th, 1992, Katia went into labor. She says, "I awake Sergei and said I'm not feeling very well and maybe we should call the hospital. Sergei started thinking about what we should take with us and I said 'nothing just take me!'..and so we went there and he keep asking me on the way there if I'm feeling well and I tried to tell him 'yes I'm feeling very well' but I didn't really feel well, but what can you say? I can see that he'd never been so nervous on the competition like this" Later that morning, Daria (nickname, Dasha) came into the world with perfect health, weighing 5 pounds, 4 ounces.
Daria, now growing up, Katia & Sergei decide to reinstate their amature rank and take another shot at Olympic gold at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994 giving them their second gold medal.
They were a very happy family up until November 20th, 1995 during a practice for Katia & Sergei's upcoming Stars On Ice tour in Lake Placid, New York. Sergei felt dizzy, with no pain. He softly lowered himself to the ice. Katia at first thought it was his back and kept asking him "Seriozha, what's wrong?" there was no answer. Their coach & choreographer at the time, Marina Zoueva, started doing CPR on Sergei while Katia ran to get some help. The other skaters held Katia and didn't let her see what was happening. The ambulence got there and Katia only had time to take her skates off & grab Sergei's bag. Sergei's heart was still beating in the ambulence. They reached the hospital and Sergei was taken to another room. Marina and Katia walked around the hospital for a bit while Marina tried to explain what had gone wrong, but she didn't know herself. A few minutes later a nurse approaches them and tells Katia they had tried all they could, given Sergei electric shocks, shots of adreniline, nothing was working. On the morning of November 20th the accomplished athlete, wonderful friend, son, brother, father, and husband, Sergei Grinkov, passed away from a fatal heartattack. He had two arteries near the heart completely blocked. The doctor who examined him says "He was actually dead the minute he layed himself down on the ice". The skating world has a sudden sense of silence & mourning for Sergei.3 year old Dasha, and 24 year old Katia had only eachother to get through this tragic time. Katia had to do the only thing that comes natural to her, figure skating. She had no other career, she couldn't survive without skating. So, she stepped onto that ice in a soulful tribute to Sergei, titled, "Sergei Grinkov: Celebration Of A Life". Sergei's friends & fellow skaters gathered in the same building to perform pieces, with introductions, just for Sergei. It wasn't to remember his death, it was to honor his life. Sergei loved life very much and had a very fun loving spirit. He was always honest to everybody. Not many people would think he had such a sense of humor for a man with such a strong presence, but he did, he laughed all the time it seemed like. He was a strong, handsome, talented man who's life surely did not deserve to be ended that quickly.
In 1996 Katia wrote a book titled "My Sergei" telling the story of Gordeeva & Grinkov, the story, of her dear Seriozha. In 1997 the best selling book was made into a movie presentation docu-drama which I recieved the quotes in this story piece from. I hope you enjoyed their story, from the eyes of a fan. I am one strong devoted fan that will never leave Katia in the dark, and will never EVER forget Sergei and the love they shared & brought out in their skating.
Katia continued to tour with Stars On Ice, opened The Sergei Grinkov Memorial Garden at Target House, and released two perfume lines titled Katia, and Katia Sport.
In 1998 Katia wrote another book titled "A Letter For Daria" sharing wisdom, talking about Sergei, how life in America & Russia is differant, and sharing the love she has to her daughter who reminds her so very much of Sergei. She said, sometimes she'd look into Daria's eyes and say "I see Sergei", when Daria would reply, "I can't", Katia would say "Try, if you try you will see."Daria kept on showing her interest in skating she had since birth and skated in her father..and mother's memory and even performed with Katia in some numbers.
In 1998-9 Katia fell in love again with the russian singles skater, Ilia Kulik, and gave birth to their daughter, Elizaveta in June of 2001. The couple married in June of 2002 and are still going strong as ever.
As for Daria, she loves her step dad just like she did Sergei and loves her little sister Liza. In 2007 Dasha quit skating to play for her school's volleyball team. Many fans were dissapointed to not see Sergei's smile that Dasha shines so well, to not see the sparkle in Dasha's eyes, and to not get that precious girl to brighten the world, but I think all us fans know, Dasha has a real gift, just shown in differant ways than her parents' gift showed. She still may choose to perform numbers with Katia again, but no one can tell at the moment.
Currently (2008), Ilia (30), Katia (36), Liza (6), and Daria (15) all live in a nice house in Newport Beach, California and visit Moscow, Russia when they can. They only speak russian at home but they all know english. Katia is the only one who's still struggling on proper english but she does amazingly well :) Dasha & Liza speak russian but not fluently.
I hope you enjoy my fan site and I hope you can show the love here for G&G :) A warm welcome...click around :)
