

Gordeeva and Grinkov won almost every competition they entered. They turned professional in the fall 1990, winning their first World Professional Championship in 1991. After a fall in their long program, they took silver at the World Championships in 1988, but reclaimed the title in 19. They remain the youngest pairs team ever to win Olympic gold. She was hospitalized for a time, but they were still able to compete in and win a gold medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics, which began the following February in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In November 1987, Grinkov caught a blade on the ice during a practice session and dropped Gordeeva on her forehead. They successfully defended their world title in 1987. They are one of the few pair teams to win back-to-back junior and senior world championship titles. The following year they won the first of their four World Figure Skating Championships. Gordeeva and Grinkov won the 1985 World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Because Grinkov frequently missed practice, their coach eventually insisted that Gordeeva pair with someone else, but she refused. She was not a particularly strong jumper, and in August 1981, coach Vladimir Zaharov paired the 11-year-old Gordeeva with the 15-year-old Sergei Grinkov. She wore multiple pairs of socks inside skates many sizes too big because skates small enough for her feet were unavailable in the Soviet Union. Gordeeva began figure skating at age four, when she entered Children and Youth Sports School of CSKA Moscow.

Gordeeva and Grinkov on an Azerbaijani stamp of 1998 Gordeeva said, " worked with me on movement very often when I was little." Gordeeva has a younger sister, Maria Alexandrovna Gordeeva (born 1975), who lives in Moscow. Often called "Katia," Gordeeva was born in Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia) to Elena Lvovna Gordeeva, a teletype operator for TASS, and Alexander Alexeyevich Gordeev, a dancer for the Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble.


After Grinkov's death, Gordeeva continued performing as a singles skater. Together with her late husband, Sergei Grinkov, she was the 19 Olympic Champion and four-time World Champion (1986, 1987, 1989, 1990) in pair skating. Ekaterina "Katia" Alexandrovna Gordeeva ( Russian: Екатерина Александровна Гордеева born ) is a Russian figure skater.
