December 26, 1997
From Courier (Russian paper published in Los Angeles, CA, USA):
THEY TRIED TO PUT ME IN JAIL
by Sergei Dadigin
translated by Ilona Leon
This is the excerpt from an interview with Stanislav Zhuk - the former coach of G&G. Here only the G&G related passages are published.
Zhuk: "...Sirotin did everything that was in his power to take Katya and Sergei from me and to make them work with Marina Zueva. You know why? Because Zueva was his mistress. Now, she lives in Canada and I know that she is training someone. But who? During the Europe & World Championships you would not be able to find her or her skaters. They probably have not reach that level of professionalism."
Correspondent: "Wait a minute, as I remember Marina Zueva was a choreographer during those years, and before the Olympics Games in Calgary G&G left you for the Stanislav Leonovich..."
Zhuk: "By the way, he was my student too. Together with Marina Pestova, they won the silver and bronze medals during the World Championships. Thus, Leonovish was not experienced enough when he accepted Katya and Sergei, so Zueva was working as a coach and as a choreographer at the same time. What kind of coach is she? Zueva was just a dancer (her partner was Andrei Vitman), but Katya and Sergei were in pair skating and it is a lot harder where you have to jump...
Zueva could create some kind of program for them, but to teach them how to jump-no way. Therefore, she talked Leonovich into taking away G&G from me because I had so many other students at the time. En passant, I helped Zueva get a job at CSKA. Nobody wanted to hire her after the conflict between her and Yelena Chaikovskaya where Zueva spit on her face. I asked management to hire her to work with a group of kids. As it turned out, I did it for my own headache...She wrote many complainants against me. She even connected herself to my ex-wife, but through the hands of Katya Gordeeva. Can you imagine, young Katya who was only 14 at the time, writing a letter to the CSKA management. She wrote that coach Nina A. Zhuk (Zhuk’s ex-wife) is not fulfilling her requirements as a coach, she is this and that, meaning that CSKA should take some kind of action. CSKA knew right away that something was wrong because Katya never worked with Nina Zhuk before. The CSKA just ignored the letter. Ever after this happened, my ex-wife Nina never had any sympathy toward Katya."
I do not have anything against Sergei and Katya. They left me, so what? I was always happy for all their accomplishments in their lives. When I heard what happened to Sergei I could hardly believe it. November 20, 1997 was exactly two years since Sergei’s sudden death. Lately, I visited Novodevichie Cemetery, to see Grinkov’s grave-looks like it has not been taking care of. I heard that Katya planed to put a monument on her husband’s grave, but she does not have time. Of course, she lives in America and rarely comes to her native land...
Someone translated a few parts from her book "My Sergei" that she published in America in English. She hurts, embarrasses and degrades me in her book. God is a good judge for her! And she is not an angel! Why did she publish her book in America, but not in Russia? Just wanted to gain more money. But out of what? Her husband’s death of course! I could tell true stories about Katya that she would be a shamed of. But, I would not. Why should I?"
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