GORDEEVA, Ekaterina 1971-

PERSONAL: Born 1971, in USSR (now Russia); daughter of Alexander and Elena Gordeeva; married Sergei Grinkov (a figure skater; died, 1995), April, 1991; married Ilia Kulik (a figure skater), June 10, 2002; children: (first marriage) Daria, (second marriage) Elizaveta.

ADDRESSES: Home—Los Angeles, CA. Agent—Author's Mail, Warner Books, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER: Figure skater. Narrator for videocassette Three Cheers for Catherine the Great!, 2001.

AWARDS, HONORS: First Place award, World Figure Skating Championships, 1986, 1987, 1989, and 1990, for pairs figure skating; Gold Medal, Olympic Games, 1988 and 1994, for pairs figure skating.

WRITINGS:

(With E. M. Swift) My Sergei: A Love Story, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Antonina W. Bouis) A Letter for Daria, Little, Brown (Boston), 1998.

SIDELIGHTS: Ekaterina Gordeeva is an Olympic champion figure skater who has chronicled her life's darkest hour in two different books. Gordeeva lost her first husband and skating partner, Sergei Grinkov, in 1995 when he collapsed and died on the ice during a practice session. Gordeeva's books My Sergei: A Love Story and A Letter for Daria both recount her love affair with Grinkov and her despair at his death. Both books were bestsellers, with My Sergei topping the lists with more than a million copies sold. In the intervening years Gordeeva has continued to skate as a solo performer and has remarried. As Sally Lodge noted in Publishers Weekly, "Ekaterina came back from a great tragedy and is carrying on with her life."

Gordeeva and Grinkov began skating together in 1982 at the ages of eleven and fifteen respectively. Together they won first place at the World Figure Skating Championships four times, as well as winning two Olympic gold medals. After nine years of skating together, they married and had a daughter. However, their time together was cut short when Grinkov suffered a fatal heart attack not long after earning the pair's second Olympic gold medal.

With the assistance of E. M. Swift, Gordeeva shares the couple's story in My Sergei, a book that met with an enthusiastic reception by fans and critics. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the last chapters "heartrending" and commented, "Their love and their happiness together is deeply moving." Ilene Cooper compared the book to Eric Segal's Love Story in her Booklist review, and added, "Both are tearjerkers, but this one really happened." As Gordeeva writes in My Sergei: "I'd like to live my life over again backward . . . any day I am living now, I'd exchange for a day in the past."

Gordeeva returned to the ice in February, 1996, performing in a Stars on Ice show that her skating colleagues had dedicated to Sergei's memory. She retired from competition and with the success of My Sergei and her ice show earnings Gordeeva was able to live in comfort with the couple's daughter, Daria. In 1998 Gordeeva published a children's book called A Letter for Daria, in which she speaks to her daughter about Daria's father's death and other family matters. Though it did not match My Sergei in sales, Lodge noted in Publishers Weekly that A Letter for Daria "has enormous human interest" and appeals to the "whole niche of girls out there who are entirely enamored of ice skaters." Another Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded of the work: "Gordeeva's sincerity shines through and her life philosophy is one that will inspire many."

Gordeeva's second husband is skater Ilia Kulik. When not performing, the couple live in Los Angeles. Gordeeva's voice can be heard on the Scholastic videocasette Three Cheers for Catherine the Great!, a story about an American girl growing up with a Russian grandmother.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Gordeeva, Ekaterina. My Sergei: A Love Story, Warner (New York, NY), 1997.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 1996, p. 290; November 15, 2001, Candace Smith, review of Three Cheers for Catherine the Great!, p. 588.

Library Journal, November 15, 1996, p. 67.

Newsweek, December 23, 1996, pp. 58-59.

People, March 25, 1996, pp. 80-87; March 15, 1999, "Ekaterina Gordeeva," p. 274; April 30, 2001, "Twice Blessed," p. 58; January 13, 2003, "Melting the Ice," p. 125.

Publishers Weekly, September 23, 1996, pp. 63-64; May 4, 1998, Sally Lodge, "Skating Star Shines Again As Author," p. 27; May 18, 1998, review of A Letter for Daria, p. 81.

School Library Journal, October, 2001, Teresa Bateman, review of Three Cheers for Catherine the Great!, p. 82.

Time, January 26, 1998, Steve Lopez, "Life after the Glory," p. 64.*