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Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Gordeeva (born May 28,
1971) is  an Olympic Games|Olympic and world
figure skating champion.

Nicknamed Katia, she was born in Moscow, Russia to
Alexsander Alexeyevich Gordeev and Elena Levovna
Gordeeva.  The oldest of two daughters, she has a
younger sister named Maria Alexandrovna Gordeeva. 
Katia began skating at the age of four.  Her
father wanted her to be a dancer.  She wanted to
skate.  At a time in Soviet Union history when
athletic children were identified, sent to special
schools, and given rigorous training in their
sport, at age ten she was paired with
fourteen-year-old Sergei Grinkov at the Central
Red Army Club (CSKA) in Moscow.  The pair won the
1985 World Junior Championships in Colorado
Springs, Colorado and in 1986 burst into the world
skating spotlight when they won the first of their
four World Figure Skating Championships. They
became repeat world champions the following year
and then won gold at the 1988 Winter Olympics in
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  After a fall in their
long program, they took silver at the World
Championships in 1988, but they reclaimed that
title in 1989 and successfully defended it again
in 1990.  They turned professional in the fall of
1990.  They won their first World Professional
Championship in 1991, and went on to win that
title two more times (1992 & 1994).  

They won virtually every competition they entered.
 In the 31 competitions they completed at the
Senior and professional levels, they finished
first an impressive 24 times.  After winning their
first World Championship in 1986, they never
finished lower than second place, and rarely took
home anything but gold.  They are one of the few
pair teams in history to successfully complete a
quadruple twist lift in international competition
- at 1987 World Championships.  They also
completed the difficult maneuver at the 1987
European Championships, but due to a problem with
Sergei's boot strap and a misunderstanding about
the rules, they were disqualified from that event.
 

By 1989, their skating partnership had blossomed
into romance and they married in April 1991 (the
state wedding was on April 20, the church wedding
was on April 28). The following season was the
first year they toured with Stars on Ice.  The
skated throughout the United States and Canada
with the show which ran from November 1991 through
April 1992.  Then, on September 11, 1992 she gave
birth to their daughter, Daria Sergeevna Grinkova
(nicknamed 'Dasha'), born in Morristown, New
Jersey.  Shortly after Daria's birth, Katia was
back on the ice training for the new season of
Stars on Ice, which debuted that November.  During
that year, fans were thrilled to learn that G&G,
as they were known, would return to the ranks of
eligible skating to compete in the next Olympics.

In 1994 Katia Gordeeva and her husband returned to
Olympic competition and captured their second gold
medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer,
Oppland, Norway. After these Olympics, they
returned once again to professional skating and
took up residence in Simsbury, Connecticut. 
During the 1994-95 season, they toured, yet again,
with Stars on Ice, this time as headliners.  That
year, Gordeeva was named one of the 50 Most
Beautiful People by People Magazine. However,
tragedy struck in  November of 1995, when Sergei
Grinkov collapsed and died from a massive heart
attack at Lake Placid, New York while they were
practicing for their upcoming performance in the
1995-96 "Stars on Ice" tour.

In February of 1996, Katia Gordeeva returned to
skating, this time as a solo performer. Her first
performance was a tribute skated to the music of
Mahler at "Celebration of a Life", a skating show
created in honor of her late husband.  The same
year, with the aid of author E. M. Swift, she told
the story of her life in a book titled My Sergei :
A Love Story. In February of 1998, the CBS
television network aired her story based on the
book, and in April her second book was published
under the title,  A Letter for Daria. Her solo
skating career has blossomed with "Stars on Ice"
plus she has signed various commercial
endorsements.  She has lent her name to two
different perfumes ("Katia" and "Katia Sport"),
both sold though Target Stores.  She and Daria
appeared in the 1997 Holiday movie "Snowden on
Ice" and Katia appeared in the 1998 sequel
"Snowden's Raggedy Ann and Andy Holiday Show". 
She has represented Target and Rolex and also
appeared with Daria in a Milk Mustache ad.  In
2001, she was the subject of a Lennox figurine
called "Katia's Celebration of Life", which
depicts her layback spin from the Mahler tribute
she skated for Sergei.  

On June 15, 2001, she gave birth to her second
daughter, Elizaveta Ilyinichna Kulik (nicknamed
'Liza' (pronounced LEE-za), whose father is  1998
Winter Olympics men's gold medallist Ilia Kulik. 
The couple married in a private ceremony in San
Francisco on June 10, 2002.  They currently reside
in Avon, Connecticut and train at Newington Arena
in Newington, Connecticut.  Katia returned to the
ice  after Liza's birth, and she continues to
delight and charm audiences around the world at
various professional exhibitions and as a guest
star with Stars on Ice. In addition to her
skating, she has ventured into the arenas of
coaching and choreography.