Ekaterina Gordeeva & Sergei Grinkov / Interview with Elena Gordeeva

Interview with Elena Gordeeva

Early in the morning, Red Star (newspaper) correspondent, lieutenant colonel Zhitnikov, called the new Olympic champion Ekaterina Gordeeva’s mother, Elena Lvovna, — a display operator at the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, to surprise her with the great news.

Congratulations on your daughter’s gold.
Thank you. But we already know. At about 6 a.m., Katia’s first coach called us — he was watching figure skating competition live since 4 a.m. Moscow time. Around 6 a.m., Katia and Sergei stepped on the ice. And after that it became clear that they are the new Olympic champions. My husband an I watched the recorded video of the competition. It was great.

Were you worried?
Without a doubt. Even though we already knew the result, still we gasped when they executed the key difficult elements.

What would you like to tell Katia?
I have already told her everything. Right after the medal ceremony, Katyusha called us from the Calgary press center. She informed us of what my husband and I already knew. We are very glad and happy for her.

How does she feel after the victory?
She still can’t believe it, even though the medal – a gold medal – is in her little hands.

Tell us something about her.
Katia’s dad wanted Katyusha to be a ballet dancer. Therefore after a third grade, he went with Katia to a choreography school competition. Our daughter passed all of the exams. But after a while, Katia declared that she does not want to go to ballet school, she must be a figure skater. A few months later she started skating together with Serezha Grinkov. After finishing Moscow high school #704, she wants to study at GITIS (Russian Academy of Theatre Arts) in the department where Ludmila Pakhomova studied. But this season is not over yet. At the end of March, she will skate at the next World championships in Budapest.