Gordeeva Returns To Site Of Husband’s Death Grinkov, Gordeeva Last Skated At Lake Placid One Year Ago
As painful as Ekaterina Gordeeva’s memories are of Sergei Grinkov’s sudden death, they are more poignant of his celebrated life.
So she could not help but return Saturday to perform for the first time in Lake Placid since her husband and figure-skating partner died here one year ago.
“Time goes by quite fast and I don’t know how long this is going to take to heal,” Gordeeva said Saturday just prior to performing. “I’m just very, very happy that I’m involved with this great group of people and I am able to skate with them.”
Gordeeva performed Saturday night in a Discover Stars on Ice preview show that featured Kristi Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton and includes Paul Wylie, Kurt Browning and Rosalynn Sumners. The troupe is practicing in this Adirondack Mountain resort in advance of a 60-city American tour which begins Dec. 28 in Greensboro, N.C.
Performing without Grinkov remains a strange feeling, Gordeeva said, but one she is gradually getting comfortable with.
“I have a lot of things to say to people,” she said. “I have a lot of things to show people.”
A memorial service was held at the Olympic arena here on Nov. 20, the anniversary of Grinkov’s death.
Gordeeva said she could not have stayed away on the first anniversary of her husband’s death, no matter the mixed emotions.
“Even if I had a choice and it wasn’t a rehearsal period for Discover Stars on Ice, I would come back to Lake Placid,” she said. “My friends and my last memories of Sergei are here.”
Grinkov was practicing on Nov. 20, 1995, at the Olympic facilities when he was supposed to lift Gordeeva by the waist. Instead, he suddenly bent over. She thought he had reaggravated a back injury, but he continued skating toward the boards of a practice rink just off the main ice, tried to steady himself against the glass and slumped to the ice.
Efforts at a nearby hospital to resuscitate Grinkov’s heart with electric shocks and adrenalin failed. He was 28.