Gordeeva was 13 and began to see Grinkov as more than just her skating partner. In December 1983, after a coaching change and just one year of training, Gordeeva and Grinkov finished sixth in the Junior World Championships. Gordeeva's grandmother read Grimm's fairytales to her, not knowing that's how Gordeeva would later describe her life - like a fairytale.

Gordeeva's parents both worked hard and traveled so much that Gordeeva and her sister, Maria, often stayed with their grandparents. Her mother, Elena Levovna, was a teletype operator for the Soviet newsagent Tass. Her father, Alexander Alexeyevich Gordeev, a folk dancer for the Moiseev Dance Company, wanted Gordeeva to become a ballet dancer. Gordeeva was born in Moscow, Russia, on May 28, 1971. In 1995, at age 28, her partner and husband Grinkov died of a heart attack.

In their 13 years of skating together, Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov were first co-workers, became friends, then fell in love, married, became parents and won four world championships and two Olympic gold medals. Who Is Ekaterina Gordeeva?Įkaterina Gordeeva is a Russian champion ice skater. Ekaterina Gordeeva is a Russian figure skater who, with her late partner and husband Sergei Grinkov, was a two-time Olympian and four-time world champion.

Katarin the ice queen