1996
From a Russian newspaper:
AUTOPORTRAIT: 12 MONTHS OF MY LIFE
by Ekaterina Gordeeva and Semyon Belits-Geyman
translated by Rustam Masitov
It takes over 4 hours to drive from Lake-Placid to Simsbury, Connecticut. And here we are in the new center for skating and hockey. It contains 2 beautiful rinks; rooms for choreography and athleticism, restroom and many other things that are necessary for professional practice. Therefore it is not a fluke that the well-known athletes chose Simsbury as the headquarter. Apart from Katya Gordeeva there are Oksana Baiul, Viktor Petrenko, US champion Scott Davis...
At the rink - Galina Zmievskaya, the coach with the world fame. All skaters are around her. And although Katya practices herself, Zmievskaya is ever ready to help her. There isn’t anyone who would refuse to support her! As well as she herself to others. If she promises something - she will fulfil that. The same is with the interview. She shared out maximum time from what she had planned for leisure and personal things between difficult hour-long practices and rehearsals. My tongue didn’t slip out - rehearsals. She was to shoot in Disneyland where one of her partners on the ice was Viktor Petrenko. I saw them studying the new scenes, Katya listening to the American choreographer Michael Seibert. She patiently went into the role of "flying dream".
Katya has ever liked to dream. And much of what she had been dreaming of came true. Now her dreams differ from those when they were together - Sergei, she and daughter Daria. But she didn’t lose faith in the future - which the readers are going to see themselves. Our conversation was about how each of the 12 months influenced her destiny.
MayJuneEkaterina: Where shall I begin from? Maybe from May? All started on May 28. I was born 25 years back.
The apartment in Presnya (near the present Russian Parliament - remark of translator). On the occasion of my birthday a table is laid. A lot of people from our group ZSKA (the Central Red Army Club). Sergei Grinkov and I have started to skate together not so long ago. I have invited him to my birthday party too. But he arranged me a meeting - I don’t know why - at the subway station. I‘m running, I’m late. I see him standing with a large dog - a white dog with gingerly spots, a very large toy! I turned fourteen and I didn’t know what our relations would be. I called the dog Grinya (from Grinkov - remark of translator) and I liked it very much.
Semyon Belits-Geyman: Katya is looking at the elegant timepiece, and I recall that a few years ago in NY Sergei was interested in watches. That was in early May. There was some spare time to make shopping. It may occur during long touring. Sergei wanted to make a surprise to Katya. The price didn’t embarrass him. The main thing was if his wife would be glad with the gift?
SBG: - Is it that one?
Ekaterina: Yes, Sergei presented it to me. He made that expensive present for the first time not having said to me anything.
SBG: Katya makes a pause and then goes on...
JulyEkaterina: June - we used to be at the sea. When we were small we were by Tuapse (a famous Russian resort on the Black sea - remark of translator). Athletes from CSKA were based there. When we got into the team we spent time in Eshery - were warming up from the ice.
Four years ago Sergei and I decided to go to Greece, on the islands and have a rest. Nobody took care of us. Seriozha took care of me. We had splendid time. By the way, the ISU celebrated its 100th anniversary. We were invited to Davos and then we went to Greece. Of course, I didn’t think about skating at that time. But it was tempting to be there at the "banquet". There we met Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov for the first time. They live nearby. The great athletes called us to watch their films. But I wanted to stay with Sergei, walk around the city. I remember a very funny moment. Protopopov noticed that we had been skating "his music". He meant "Liebestraum". Sergei answered: "If I’m not mistaken it's Liszt’s music, but the rest as you say".
This year we haven’t broken our family tradition and in June, I went with Dasha to Hawaii. I was participating in a show and then I with my daughter have been having rest for four days. Dasha adores ocean. She dressed bright costumes and danced under the sounds of a drum imitating the local beauties...
AugustSBG: Both amateur and pro skaters wander. So did Katya Gordeeva. As a rule there wasn’t ice in Moscow in July and childrens' groups went to the south.
Ekaterina: I remember Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye (today’s Ukraine - remark of translator). Markets are full of greenery and fruit... pain in feet. The first practices on the ice after a break. The most terrible thing is new skates. Now one has learned how to make them more comfortable, but at that time... pain and tears. And there wasn’t much time for making a programme.
I was 9. You can see Kutuzovsky and Kalinisky prospect (the major government roads in Moscow) out of the window of our apartment. The Olympic torch - here it is nearby. Athletes are running, giving the torch from one to another. There was a salute in the evening. I wanted to watch it but my parents took me away with them to our country house in Povarovka. Then I wasn’t dreaming of competing at the Olympics... It will be only later when I realize what the Olympic Games are and will start getting prepared for them.
We were seldom in Moscow in summer. Just so for a couple of days. I don’t remember anything. But I do remember last July. I practised on "Crystal" rink in Luzhniki for money for the first time. I paid in order to pass through the gates and for the ice. I don’t feel offence but some dregs. It couldn’t happen before. Now another times. And it is not because of poverty, no...
I like to pick up mushrooms. One can gather underasp-mushrooms in July. In Simsbury you can pick them too. But I don’t have time for that. But Dasha found her first mushroom this summer in Moscow (what a place for mushroom pickers!) . I’m looking forward to her stories about how she had spent time in the country with her grandmother and grandfather.
SeptemberSBG: One could feel grief in Katya’s voice. The next month was August. The month when all members of her family were rushing home to celebrate her daddy’s birthday.
Ekaterina: By early August all programmes are practically ready. The practices were almost a routine: you go on to the ice in the morning, leave it in the evening, a small break in the day. And still you find time for something that is not in your strict timetable. For example, car driving. My father taught me to drive. He’s a passionate driver, a very strict and exacting driving instructor. Even now when he gets into a car with me I get nervous. If I do something wrong? The first thing I do is that I turn music down, look over the salon - if everything is in its place and clean. Accuracy is also from him. Our first car was from Japan. The wheel on the right side. I had troubles with driving, especially in Moscow.
The best present for my daddy is when everybody together. Then touring till spring and nobody knows how soon we shall be able to see each other together. Sergei and I came to Simsbury in late August '94 and settled in this house not knowing for how long...
SBG: Just exactly in these clean and large houses live the rest champions. The club rents them for world-known athletes. There isn’t better advertising than that. Many American children and their parents are delighted to live and train next to the stars. Autographs are a usual thing for Katya. It’s something like a ritual in the club: a few minutes before and after the ice - autographs and "a photo for memory".
OctoberEkaterina: Photos for memory - it’s so great! How many years have passed since I went to school! I forgot a lot of things but if I look at the pictures in my album and I can see the whole class in front of me. School No 701 with sport "slope"; there were enough young athletes from CSKA. Someone became famous all over the world. Pasha and Valera Bure studied with me.
Here is another picture. I’m too small and standing in the skates. The first steps I made when I was four. Dasha is ahead of me. She will be four in September but she stands on the ice steadily enough. Sergei wanted that she asked on to the ice herself. And it did happen. After she learned to walk she asked: "Where are my skates?"
Why was Dasha born in America? There is an explanation to that. Some people advised to deliver the baby in Moscow, the other in the US. In the last minute I decided to fly to America. When we appeared in the airport we were not allowed in for the visa had expired. Sergei and I rushed to the American Embassy to get the visa and in a few days we were already in NJ under IMG’s cover - we had a contract with them. Dasha was born without any problems. And in a couple of weeks I could resume practices.
NovemberEkaterina: October - is my mum’s month. The best present for her is flowers. I remember that since my childhood. I was too small when my sister Masha was born. The daddy bought forget-me-nots and said: "Go and congratulate the mummy!"
It so happened that in October '90 we appeared to be without our coach and choreographer. Stanislav Leonovitch left for Italy and later for France while Marina Zueva - for Canada both to work there. We were forced to make a decision what to do next. So we were under IMG’s cover. We prepared two programmes and were included into the show immediately. One was required to skate not only this number but together as well for "Stars on Ice" is not only exhibitions but a play with its subject. To work according to a new time-table was a difficult thing. At first we got tired tremendously. But later there were tours and pro competitions and we got used to that. Thousands of spectators, music and a large number of bunches with flowers. I seldom bring all the flowers home. The major part of them we presented to the audience, sent to hospitals. Life is unimaginable without flowers. It’s ever beautiful and pleasant when they are next to you. I like especially field daisies.
DecemberSBG: Katya is narrating what October is memorable with but I mentally already overturn the page of a calendar. The first snow, the first frost and the first serious competitions in Moscow. The Moscow News tournament. Noisy wings of the Sports Palace in Luzhninki. The first appearance of Stanislav Zhuk’s new students - petite Ekaterina Gordeeva and slender Sergei Grinkov...
Ekaterina: I was always afraid of November competitions and practices. Practically all traumas and diseases were in this month. Particularly difficult it was in 1987. At "The Moscow News" - fall and trauma. And above all it happened two months before the Olympics that we had been dreaming to win! Since then I have a task - to skate off November without any traumas. At least I tried to do that and told the same to Sergei.
Last November was an exception. The first ten days we were training, having rehearsals. On November 11 we left for Albany. We participated in "Skates of Gold". Then we got back to Lake-Placid. In a few days Sergei felt a backache. It wasn’t a big surprise for him. He rested a bit and got back to work. On November 19 we went to the cinema. On our way back to the hotel I noticed that a side mirror of the car was broken...
SBG: What was next we know well. I didn’t want to bring Katya back to that tragic day.
JanuaryEkaterina: December is a month of expectations and hopes for me. Well, I think, the year is coming to the end and there are new discoveries ahead. At the New Year’s Eve something happened. I remember how several hours before the clock struck 12 Sergei whispered me some testamentary words and we kissed for the first time...
Dasha loves December too. In those days we drew attention to her more often than usual. Sergei taught her to draw and to count and I to speak English. By the way we taught her a lot of things ourselves. Only to swim - her grandmother. Now Dasha hasn’t got any problems with water. She jumps into water fearlessly. In this she takes after him. He didn’t fear anything or anybody in any situation.
FebruarySBG: January for the best European skaters is associated with the European championship. For Katya and Sergei their start in Copenhagen in 1986 was the first one in their career.
Ekaterina: We were nervous then tremendously. Everything was new for us. We were looking at sides more. Stanislav Alekseevitch Zhuk was heading us onto the ice. We were competing with the Olympic champions Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev. They won again and we had to await the World championship in Geneva where we captured gold.
And our last European championship was held in the same palace in Copenhagen. Everything was familiar to us. We were warming up in "our corner" under the tribunes, were sitting on the same chairs waiting for our turn. We were nervous but didn’t display that. Our first coach Vladimir Zakharov was heading us onto the ice. It was him who paired us in 1982. But there was also Nadezhda Shevalovskaya. She worked as a coach in Denmark then. It so happened that one year later Zakharov left us saying Sergei didn’t suit but Nadezhda took us under her cover. Another year passed and we were noticed by Stanislav Zhuk. If I’m not mistaken it was in January...
MarchEkaterina: February 4 - is Sergei’s birthday. It’s the hottest time of all competitions but nevertheless we celebrated it. Either with a small group in a hotel’s room or in the nearest restaurant or at home in Moscow what was a rare thing.
February - is also two Olympic Games: Calgary - '88 and Lillehammer - '94. There were also Olympics - '92 in Albertville but we watched them only on television. It was that time that I realized what the Olympic Games were. Because when you compete you don’t see anything around. I was nervous about each familiar skater. I was glad up to tears for the victories. I felt how Sergei was burning from willingness to be there although he was demure with me and didn’t let me worry. We have just learnt that we shall have a baby. And we started to plan everything taking into account this event...
AprilEkaterina: I have always noticed that February isn’t just the shortest month of the year but the fastest one for me as well. March is another thing. After Olympics you hardly "live up" to the World championship. You can even lose it what exactly happened to us in Budapest in 1988. And to Tokyo we didn’t go at all leaving all our strengths in Lillehammer.
Ekaterina: This April I had to re-live all major moments of my life anew. To rewind the memory in conversation with an American journalist Edward Swift who helped me work over the book. It was interesting but difficult: 5 hours speaking a foreign language a day. But I had to speak out and believed it would help...
Working over the book I recalled our wedding in April how I was standing under crown and couldn’t believe my happiness.
SBG: And again hesitated Ekaterina Gordeeva for a second. Then that a bit excusing look and I understood that my time was up.
I have to add that all programmes this season were staged by Marina Zueva. Katya went to her to Ottawa. I happened to watch the programme that was staged for Katya last winter on the ice of a large sports palace in Montreal. One can’t express it in words. The bewildered audience was greeting the outstanding Russian skater standing...
the G&G corner - Copyright © Su-jan Yip, September 1996 - 2007