The beautiful love story of a champion who d!3d on the ice rink
The beautiful love story of a champion who d.i.e.d on the ice rink
At the age of 28, Sergei Grinkov and his partner Ekaterina Gordeeva won two Olympic gold medals in figure skating. At the age of 28, Grinkov died on the ice, leaving behind a beautiful love story.
Sergei Grinkov’s life is a love story. Unfortunately, it is a sad love story. Very beautiful, very brilliant, passionate and painfully short.
Born on February 4, 1967, exactly 47 years ago. Until 1981, Grinkov did not know that he had always walked the same path as a girl 4 years younger than him, who lived in the house next door. They went to the same school 704, but did not know each other. They were both in the same skating club since they were little, but did not meet, because they both learned to skate in singles. They both dreamed of a bright future.
In 1981, the coaches decided that both of them had weak jumps and that pursuing single skating would be a no-go. So they were paired up, and this combination became fateful not only for them, but for the entire figure skating world. Gordeeva was 10 years old at the time, Grinkov was 14. At that time, neither of them knew that their fates would not only be in sports.
After only half a year, both of them quickly mastered the new program and started competing in 1982.
Their first coaches were Vladimir Zakharov and Nadezhda Shevalovskaya. They progressed very quickly, and three years later (1985) they won the World Junior Championship. Competing at the USSR Championships with the best athletes in the world, the young pair achieved a fairly high position – 6th place overall.
Recognizing their potential, the most famous figure skating coach of the time, Stanislav Zhuk, took them on as his students. Under his guidance, they won the world championship just a year later. Gordeeva was only 14 years old at the time – the youngest champion in the history of world figure skating. In the same year, they won two silver medals at the European Championship and the Soviet Championship.
A year later, switching to training with coach Stanislav Leonovich, the pair won all major competitions: world championships, European championships, USSR championships and became gold medal hopes at the 1988 Winter Olympics.
That year Grinkov was 21 years old, and Gordeeva had just turned 17. It was well known in the world that they were not only a sports couple, but also a real-life couple. Perhaps, it was their closeness of soul that helped them easily conquer all competitions, including the Olympics. Their dance to the music “Mendelson’s March” went down in the history of figure skating as a classic.
Three years later, on April 20, 1991, Grinkov and Gordeeva heard this wonderful melody again in a different context – at their wedding. By then, they had already won the world championship four times, put their amateur careers on hold and turned professional. They were both accepted into the theater of Tatyana Tarasova (the number one ice choreographer of the USSR), where they could not only pursue their favorite job but also earn a lot of money. For Russia in the early 1990s, this was a very important thing.
The following year, the couple welcomed their daughter Darya. They participated in international tours and many commercial projects. Thanks to their perfect skating technique, sincerity and great love for each other, in the United States and Canada, the couple received the nickname G&G – an abbreviation of the first letters of their last names. Such a nickname is reserved for movie and music stars in the United States.
In 1993, the International Olympic Committee, realizing that it had lost a large market share by banning professional athletes from the Olympics, changed the rules to allow professional athletes to compete in the transitional tournaments held in 1994. Grinkov and Gordeeva seized the opportunity and won a series of new victories at the Russian, European and World Championships. In particular, both won another gold medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
After this resounding success, the G&G duo returned to professional sports, making way for younger athletes. But on November 20, 1995, while practicing in Lake Placid, Grinkov suffered a heart attack and died on the ice.
In 1996, Gordeeva returned to the ice, skating solo in the program “Celebration of Life”. Her first performance was dedicated to her late husband, to the music Celebration of Life, excerpt from Gustav Maler’s Symphony No. 5. At the end of the performance, she could not hold back her tears. The entire audience stood up and applauded her for a long time.
Gordeeva moved on with her life, with new partners. In 2001 she remarried and had another daughter. But the only person who will always be remembered by figure skating fans is Sergei Grinkov.
