Sergei Grinkov and Ekaterina Gordeeva are among the best figure skating pairs in history. But at just 28 years old, Grinkov was suddenly taken from life by a heart attack 30 years ago today.
Sergei Grinkov was a quiet person, both in figure skating and in life: Hardly anyone, apart from his sports and marriage partner Ekaterina Gordeeva, glided over the ice surface as quietly as he did, without scratching, without crackling, a pleasure.
Grinkov and Gordeeva were a dream couple on the ice, winning four World Championship titles and two gold medals at the Olympics: 1988 in Calgary for the Soviet Union, 1994 in Lillehammer for Russia.
This always harmonious relationship, also in daily life, was brutally and completely unexpectedly destroyed on November 20, 1995, 30 years ago today. During a training session in Lake Placid, the just 28-year-old Grinkov collapsed and died of a heart attack – leaving behind not only his wife Ekaterina, but also his three-year-old daughter Daria.
No Doctor Had Noticed
Tragically: Only during the investigation of the cause of death did doctors discover that Grinkov was genetically predisposed. No doctor had previously noticed the increasingly clogged coronary arteries of the four-time world champion.
Grinkov’s death sharpened awareness beyond the ice skating world of the life-threatening interactions between heart problems and competitive sports in young people: When Grinkov died, the memory of the heart death of Bundesliga soccer player Michael Klein of Bayer Uerdingen, who was only 33 years old in 1993, was still fresh.
In 1998, Klein’s then club colleague Axel Jüptner suffered the same fate at 28. In the following decade, the deaths of Marc-Vivien Foé, Miklos Feher and Antonio Puerta shocked the world – at the 2021 European Championship, Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest reminded of the risk.
Heart Attack: Grinkov’s Fate Became a Conceptual Image
In Grinkov’s case, it later emerged that Grinkov’s parents – a police couple from Moscow – also suffered from heart problems; his mother died in 2000, his father before him.
The Grinkov tragedy also occupied the world of medicine in a lasting way, the “Grinkov Risk Factor” is now a fixed term for the heart disease that cost him his life.
Sergei Grinkov’s wife Katia Gordeeva and daughter Daria
Gordeeva and Grinkov Created Something Unique
There were and are sports couples who were statistically more successful than Gordeeva/Grinkov. However, a unique selling point remains for them: When the International Skating Union ISU gave professionals the chance to “reamateurize” for the 1994 Winter Games, in addition to Katarina Witt and the legendary Bolero dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Gordeeva/Grinkov also took this Olympic path.
Gordeeva/Grinkov made it to the world’s top at the 1986 World Championships, when as teenagers in Geneva they overshadowed the entire competition. Their success was also viewed critically. The then 14-year-old Gordeeva weighed just 35 kilograms. Her performance was mockingly called “child throwing”.
Nevertheless, they were the only ones who were actually able to re-gild their way in Lillehammer.