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Ekaterina Gordeeva

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

Nicknamed Katia, she was born in Moscow, Russia. 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 eleven she was paired with fifteen-year-old Sergei Grinkov at the Moscow school of skating. The pair won the World Junior Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1984 and two years later 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. They then joined a touring group in which they performed for the next five years. By 1989, their skating partnership had blossomed into romance and they married on April 20, 1991. In September of 1992 she gave birth to their daughter, Daria Sergeevna Grinkov, born in Morristown, New Jersey.

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 to professional skating and took up residence in Simsbury, Connecticut. That year, Gordeeva was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful Women by People Magazine. However, tragedy struck in November of 1995, when Sergei Grinkov collapsed and died from a massive heart attack at Lake Placid, New York while they were practicing for their upcoming performance in the "Stars on Ice" tour.

In February of 1996, Katia Gordeeva returned to skating, this time as a solo performer. The same year, with the aid of author E. M. Swift, she told the story of her life in a book titled . 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.

In 2002, Katia Gordeeva remarried to 1998 Winter Olympics men's gold medallist Ilia Kulik with whom she has a daughter, Elizaveta Ilyinishna Kulik.

Last updated: 08-26-2005 04:10:23
Last updated: 10-29-2005 02:13:46