Post by Admin on Nov 21, 2020 4:21:50 GMT
On Nov. 20, 1995, two-time Olympic pairs champion Sergei Grinkov, aged 28, died of a heart attack in Lake Placid, New York, while practicing with his wife and partner, Ekaterina “Katia” Gordeeva, for the opening of the Stars on Ice tour just five days away.
Twenty five years have passed, and it is still painful for Grinkov’s colleagues and friends to talk about his death.
“It’s hard, and you don’t want to put yourself though it again,” Byron Allen, producer of Stars on Ice (SOI), said. “But it’s got to be talked about, because he was that important. Five years ago, we posted a (tribute) on Facebook that is the most viewed SOI social media post ever, because of the fans’ love for Katia and Sergei.”
“It seems like yesterday and it seems like 100 years ago,” Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion, said. “Lives have changed so much… I said back then, it’s something I don’t think I’ll ever come to terms with or get over. That’s true to this day.”
Paul Wylie, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist, remembers the impact Grinkov’s passing had on his own life.
“I was kind of undone by the specter of death, the possibility of death at that stage of your life,” he said. “It made me want to maximize everything. At that time, I was thinking about continuing pro skating or going back to graduate school.”
Wylie continued performing for several more years before enrolling in Harvard Business School, earning his MBA in 2000.
“And I never regretted the decision,” he said. “I remember thinking, ‘[Performing] is the calling for you, at this moment of your life.’ … In a way, Sergei led me to that.”
Gordeeva and Grinkov, who represented the Soviet Union, have an illustrious competitive legacy, winning four world titles (1986, 1987, 1989, 1990) and 1988 Olympic gold before turning professional in late 1990. The couple regained their Olympic eligibility for the 1993-1994 season and won a second Olympic title, that time competing for Russia.
They made their marks in the professional ranks at a time when pro competitions were televised several times a month in the winter, and the Stars on Ice tour stretched to three or four months and over 60 U.S. cities.
“It was more than people coming to see great skating; they came to be members of our family,” Hamilton recalled, a bit wistfully. “It took on a greater identity, not just as an entertainment entity, but as a human thing. It became something remarkable, people came out to support us, to grieve with us, to celebrate life with us.”
For Hamilton, who co-founded Stars on Ice with IMG in 1986, Gordeeva and Grinkov were a revelation: athletes raised and trained in the Soviet Union, who entranced American audiences with their exquisite skating skills and, of course, their love story.
“When they joined SOI, they were so young and so eager to build a career and just do whatever we asked of them,” he said. “As pros, they got better and better, and having more Olympic credentials on the marquee made a big difference in the tour.”
“It was the quality they brought,” Hamilton added. “They were Olympic champions, and Katia was sort of the Nadia [Comăneci] of the 1988 Games. She was so young (16) and beautiful, or adorable rather than beautiful. She captivated a lot of people. It was really fascinating [because] at that time the Soviet Union was a mystery to a lot of people.”
When asked what made the pair so special, colleagues cited not only the couple’s personal story – they began skating together as youngsters, married in 1991 and had a daughter, Daria, in 1992 – but their matchless skating skills.
“Sergei had the look, the line, the quality, and he had great feet in lifts,” Hamilton said. “He was a very strong and big man (about 6 feet, 175 pounds), but he skated with this effortless power. It didn’t seem like it was making any noise over the ice. With Katia, she was always sort of floating above the ice, and they sort of meshed [with] each other. There was no heaviness to their skating, it was beautiful and light.”
Twenty five years have passed, and it is still painful for Grinkov’s colleagues and friends to talk about his death.
“It’s hard, and you don’t want to put yourself though it again,” Byron Allen, producer of Stars on Ice (SOI), said. “But it’s got to be talked about, because he was that important. Five years ago, we posted a (tribute) on Facebook that is the most viewed SOI social media post ever, because of the fans’ love for Katia and Sergei.”
http://instagram.com/p/B8Ik-E_AV4i
“It seems like yesterday and it seems like 100 years ago,” Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion, said. “Lives have changed so much… I said back then, it’s something I don’t think I’ll ever come to terms with or get over. That’s true to this day.”
Paul Wylie, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist, remembers the impact Grinkov’s passing had on his own life.
“I was kind of undone by the specter of death, the possibility of death at that stage of your life,” he said. “It made me want to maximize everything. At that time, I was thinking about continuing pro skating or going back to graduate school.”
Wylie continued performing for several more years before enrolling in Harvard Business School, earning his MBA in 2000.
“And I never regretted the decision,” he said. “I remember thinking, ‘[Performing] is the calling for you, at this moment of your life.’ … In a way, Sergei led me to that.”
http://instagram.com/p/B5N34-OAXK5
Gordeeva and Grinkov, who represented the Soviet Union, have an illustrious competitive legacy, winning four world titles (1986, 1987, 1989, 1990) and 1988 Olympic gold before turning professional in late 1990. The couple regained their Olympic eligibility for the 1993-1994 season and won a second Olympic title, that time competing for Russia.
They made their marks in the professional ranks at a time when pro competitions were televised several times a month in the winter, and the Stars on Ice tour stretched to three or four months and over 60 U.S. cities.
“It was more than people coming to see great skating; they came to be members of our family,” Hamilton recalled, a bit wistfully. “It took on a greater identity, not just as an entertainment entity, but as a human thing. It became something remarkable, people came out to support us, to grieve with us, to celebrate life with us.”
For Hamilton, who co-founded Stars on Ice with IMG in 1986, Gordeeva and Grinkov were a revelation: athletes raised and trained in the Soviet Union, who entranced American audiences with their exquisite skating skills and, of course, their love story.
“When they joined SOI, they were so young and so eager to build a career and just do whatever we asked of them,” he said. “As pros, they got better and better, and having more Olympic credentials on the marquee made a big difference in the tour.”
“It was the quality they brought,” Hamilton added. “They were Olympic champions, and Katia was sort of the Nadia [Comăneci] of the 1988 Games. She was so young (16) and beautiful, or adorable rather than beautiful. She captivated a lot of people. It was really fascinating [because] at that time the Soviet Union was a mystery to a lot of people.”
When asked what made the pair so special, colleagues cited not only the couple’s personal story – they began skating together as youngsters, married in 1991 and had a daughter, Daria, in 1992 – but their matchless skating skills.
“Sergei had the look, the line, the quality, and he had great feet in lifts,” Hamilton said. “He was a very strong and big man (about 6 feet, 175 pounds), but he skated with this effortless power. It didn’t seem like it was making any noise over the ice. With Katia, she was always sort of floating above the ice, and they sort of meshed [with] each other. There was no heaviness to their skating, it was beautiful and light.”