Quotes
If you would like to add a quote by G&G or about them, please contact me. Please note that only quotes with a source (and if possible with date) are added to the page.Many thanks to everyone contributing.
"Try to find happiness in every day. And at least once, smile to each other every day. And say just one extra time that you love the person who lives with you. Just say, 'I love you.' It's so great."
Ekaterina Gordeeva, February 27, 1996 (at Celebration of a Life)
"After their Olympic long program, the only mistake they made was not skating long enough. And I think it was a natural feeling for anybody who ever saw them skate. It just didn't go on long enough, much like Sergei's life."
Kurt Browning
"You don't think of her without him and you don't think of him without her and that'll never change. It's always going to be Sergei and Katia."
Scott Hamilton
"They make adjectives irrelevant."
Verne Lunquist, 1994
"Every time they stepped on the ice, there was this collective sigh because it was so perfect."
Paul Wylie
"Every performance they showed themselves... You saw the romance and you saw the passion, and you saw the depth of feeling and the love
they had for each other, and that came out every time. Their time and their space is separate from the rest of skating history."
Scott Hamilton
"You should hold on to the past, but only as a foundation for the future."
Ekaterina Gordeeva, from "A Letter to Daria"
"If you measure your achievements against your own personal accomplishments, you can continue perfecting your art for the rest of your life."
Ekaterina Gordeeva, from "A Letter to Daria"
"Well, I can see why you teach me my alphabet, but why do you think you can teach Mama how to skate."
Daria Grinkova to her Grandfather (Katia's father)
"You see her soul shine through her skating. It's beautiful."
Scott Hamilton, from the Snowden making-of
"If it is that it is better to have loved and lost, than never loved at all, then Ekaterina Gordeeva will go on and live .... truly live ... just as Sergei did."
Dick Button
"Ideal for me--yes, definitely! But I don't want people to think we are perfect. Both Katya and I understand that we each have faults, but we take each other as we are. I would not change one thing about her--take her just as she is."
Sergei Grinkov when asked "Do you see Katya as an ideal woman?"
"Absolutely not, such a stupid question. I love my wife very much and couldn't be happier with my choice. In fact, we never argue because nothing is so important and everything is wonderful. And when we have free time away from training and performing, I don't want to do things with anyone but Katya and Dasha. Katya and I are always, always together and that's how I like it--how we like it. "
Sergei Grinkov when he was asked "Do you ever regret or complain about your choice of Katya?"
"The warmth of his heart and the love he gave his family, skating and life is what resulted in perfection on the ice. Not only was he part of the greatest pair team ever to skate, he was an even greater man."
Kristi Yamaguchi
"Sergei was the kind of father that you DON'T want to meet as a 19 year-old boy coming to the house to date his daughter, and that's something we all were looking forward to seeing someday. When some young man comes to take Dash out for a movie and ... maybe never comes back {laughs}."
Kurt Browning
"It's interesting that his biggest rival [Artur Dimtriev] was also the person he respected and liked the most. And ... ditto."
Scott Hamilton
"Their program has one big flaw. It doesn't last long enough. I wanted it to go on forever"
Kurt Browning, Skate Canada 1993
"They complemented each other with a beauty and elegance that no other team in the history of pairs skating had. They had every skating quality you could beg for. I see skating all the time. With them, I would always watch them. It was a privilege."
Scott Hamilton
"Gordeeva and Grinkov were a perfect combination of the artistry of the Protopopovs and the athleticism of Rodnina and Zaitsev."
Dick Button
"Some say that when these legendary champions competed, everyone else just went for the silver. Maybe so. The truth is, as a team, Gordeeva and Grinkov were in a class by themselves in their artistry and in their love and devotion to one another."
Scott Hamilton
"What made Katia & Sergei so special to us was the love we watched blossom over the years. We watched them skate hand-in-hand as children, and hand-in-hand we watched them skate as husband and wife. Last month, his hand slipped from hers, and our hearts were shattered."
Peggy Fleming
"They were two halves that together formed a magical whole."
Dick Button
"They were champions from the start. And, from the start, Katia loved her partner."
Dick Button
"When you watch them skate, you just want them to live happily ever after."
Scott Hamilton, World Team Championships 1994
"If you have difficultes in your life you should try to carry on smiling anyway. everyone has bad times, wich they should try to pass of with a smile."
Ekaterina Gordeeva, from "Solo Flight"
"A gold medal is nothing compared to the feeling when Daria was born. It was like a gift...you know, I never thought I would be able to give birth to someone...give life to someone. It's something very, very, very, much, much more special than any[thing]...don't you think so?"
Ekaterina Gordeeva, Dateline interview, March 1996
"No one is alone. [You] always have someone, friends who always support you...No matter how dark the forest,[you] always can find someone there to light up your life."
Ekaterina Gordeeva, Primetime Live interview, January 1997
“They had everything, – Perfect technique, romantic compositions, and clean elements. They were skating for each other. You could feel their connection even from spectators’ seats.”
Natalaia Dubova, from "Broken Ice"
"He loved to laugh a lot. He knew how to be joyful since childhood..."
Sergei's mother, Anna Filippovna, from "Broken Ice"
"You know, he changed a lot in a year. He went to a summer training camp being a boy and returned already an adult. We always talked to him about Katia: "Serezha, she is a very little girl, you don't have to be shy - help her to carry things and take care of her... If she'll injure her leg or something else, it's your common fate, so don't pay attention to anybody making fun of you." And well it went. They were friends, not really close ones. Everything happened much later... They were always together... Felt each others every muscle..."
Sergei's mother, Anna Filippovna, from "Broken Ice"
"Now Katia skates by herself very well. She works so hard. Marina Zueva still helps to put her programs together. Programs are still as beautiful and lyrical as the ones they skated with Serezha." Sergei's sister, Natasha Grinkova, from "Broken Ice"
“You could see the power that they had between them when they skated,” [...] “Their eyes never left each other during the whole performance. No one else does that in pairs skating. It can be very distracting, looking into someone else’s eyes while you’re skating, but it never was for them. It was natural.
You could just see how much they loved each other. You would watch them and just wish you had that sort of relationship with someone. We all wish we could find that kind of feeling, that perfect nuclear life. So few people actually do.”
Paul Wylie, Sports Illustrated, December 4, 1995
"They were partners in the sweetest love affair in all of sports. They were a real-life Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Only better. No credits rolled across the screen at the end of their eye-pupping performance. No cameras and lights were broken down and taken to another place. The greatest pair in pair skating was a total pair, 24 hours a day, every day..."
Sports Illustrated, December 4, 1995
“They really are what pairs skating ought to be,” ... “They are the consummate pair. You can’t appreciate the capacity of a 180-pound man to move across the ice without a sound until you watch him skate. They are a symphony for the senses. Go to practice one day. Don’t watch them; just listen. Not a sound. No matter the ice condition, you hear only the music. They move so freely, their blades don’t scratch the ice.” John Nicks, Sports Illustrated, December 4, 1995
Question: Did you believe you're going to be the first?
Ekaterina Gordeeva: "Of course. I always believe in victory. But your question is incorrectly stated. I didn't win by myself, Serezha and I won together."
S. Dadygin: Sergei Grinkov was not present at the moment, so I phrased my question as I did on purpose... The matter is that in figure skating a girl-partner is always considered a face of the duo.After that kind of publicity Katia could become too proud. However, she says that SHE didn't win, but THEY did.
S. Dadygin, Soviet Sport Interview 1988
"They were meant for each other. For whatever reason they go together as kids, they blossomed thoughout and each year broght a new level of excellence and joy and love for each other and skating that translated beautifully to the public and it'll never happen again..that way."
Scott Hamilton
Jay: The moment you hit the ice there is a shadow with you, as a pair. Do you find this a gift or a burdern, or both?
Ekaterina: A GIFT! It supports me. I feel Sergei and I hope people will remember Sergei when they see me skate. I will never skate as good. It's weird when I skate, I'm not as satisfied as I was with me and Sergei.
Ekaterina Gordeeva, Primetime Live interview, January 1997
"Although Sergei's shadow forever follows her across the ice, her accomplishments are now her own. She is something completely exquisite to behold and she has finally found her spirit on the ice."
Ekaterina Gordeeva, from "Solo Flight"
" Katia- has a bright, girlish smile so captivating that she's often susupected of flirting. Its an easy mistake to make, for she glows with natural charisma, sincere warmth, and a fine sense of humor..."
Ekaterina Gordeeva, from "Solo Flight"
"I'm proud to be a Russian...I hope the Russian style will stay in my skating.."
Ekaterina Gordeeva
"People are inspired by Katia's strength... People can relate to her in a special way..."
Scott Hamilton
"He was throwing me for 10-12 years and i know how to land it, but now I have to jump by myself and then land it."
Ekaterina Gordeeva
"...now I realize you have to fight to find the happiness in life, it can't just happen.."
Ekaterina Gordeeva
"Two medals do not equal one Dasha"
Ekaterina Gordeeva, from "My Sergei"
Oksana Tonkacheeva: You have probably become used to luxury?
Katia: Yes, but we do not have aspirations for it. It is pleasant when you are surrounded by beautiful things, but they are not an end to itself. I see how American figure skaters buy the expensive fur coats, diamond rings...for them it is prestigious, but not to me. It's not necessary for me. We think, first of all, about the education and formation of our daughter. This is how we live.
Ekaterina Gordeeva, 1993
Question: Who do you admire in the skating world?
Scott Hamilton: [...] Gordeeva and Grinkov were the greatest pair team of all time, and I admire them a great deal. We lost Sergei, but Katia is somebody that I really admire for her strength and her devotion, not only to the sport, but to the people around her, and what she's been able to give out of her tragedy.
Scott Hamilton, June 29, 1996
the G&G corner - Copyright © Su-jan Yip, September 1996 - 2007