Grinkov, Sergey Mikhailovich

At the age of five he entered the Sports School of CSKA . Sergey's jumps were not strong enough for single skating, so in 1982 he switched to pair skating. The trainer of the Gordeev-Grinkov pair was Vladimir Zakharov. Since the fall of 1983, the trainer Nadezhda Shevalovskaya (Gorshkova) and choreographer Marina Zueva began to work with the couple. At the World Junior Championships in December 1983, the couple became the sixth, and in 1984 - the first. At the Skate Canada tournament in 1985, Shevalovskaya put a triple salchow jump record for couples of that time, but Gordeeva fell. Since the fall of 1985, Stanislav Zhuk takes a couple to train. Under the leadership of the new trainer, in January the couple took second place at the USSR and European championships , and then gold at the World Championships in Geneva on March 19, 1986. Catherine became the youngest world champion. After a letter from several skaters (including Gordeeva and Grinkov) to the leadership of CSKA about S. A. Zhuk in July 1986, the couple switched to training with Stanislav Leonovich , M. Zueva again became a choreographer. At the European Championships in Sarajevo , Sergey got rid of a skate; Judge B. Wright (USA) began to whistle and stopped the music, the couple completed the program without music, but no ratings were put. The couple refused the offer to re-roll the program at the end of the competition, having received a disqualification. At the World Championships in Cincinnati, they were again the first. At both championships performed a twist in four turns.

In November 1987, Gordeeva was injured in training - a concussion. The couple missed the USSR championship. Then they won the European Championship and on February 16, 1988 became Olympic champions : both programs were brought to perfection, and the arbitrary (in the music of Mendelssohn , Chopin and Mozart ) became a masterpiece in the history of figure skating, all elements were perfectly executed, including the cascade double axel - a double sheepskin coat , both ejections and three supports, all on one hand, in one of them for the first time the rotation went in the normal direction, then followed by the descent of the partner, again the rise and rotation in the other direction, the judges struck 14 ratings of 5.9 and four 5.8 (the lowest evaluation - both 5.8 - gave British Judge S. Stapleford).

At the World Championships in 1989, for the absolutely purely executed short and free programs, the couple received all 9 first places with the judges. However, at the World Cup in 1990, victory came with difficulty. In the short program, a number of judges considered the spirals as not meeting the requirements and lowered the score by 0.2 points, while in the free program Catherine stumbled on a triple sheepskin coat, and in the combination of jumps, the double axel - rittberger - oiler - double sheepskin coat performed only a single axel - rittberger (Sergey did all the jumps), as a result, they managed to beat the rivals with an advantage in only one referee's vote.

In 1990, the couple left amateur sports to Tatyana Tarasova at the All Stars Ice Theater. In 1991–92, the couple successfully performed at professional world championships. In 1991, Catherine and Sergei were married, in 1992 they had a daughter, Daria.

In 1993, the International Skating Union and the International Olympic Committee changed the rules and decided to allow professional skaters to regain amateur status and take part in the Olympic Games. Using the new rules, Gordeeva and Grinkov return to amateur sports and win the championship of Russia, Europe and the Olympic Games in Lillehammer .

November 20, 1995, during a training on the ice of the American Lake Placid, Sergei felt sick and lost consciousness. Grinkov died almost on the spot, the help of the immediately arrived doctors was already useless. The cause of death was called an extensive heart attack ^{[1] [2]} .

He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow.

• He was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples .
• Cavalier of the Order "For Personal Courage" (1994) - for high sporting achievements at the XVII Olympic Winter Games in 1994 ^[3] .

(with Ekaterina Gordeeva)

• DSQ = Disqualified

• Sergey Grinkov - Olympic statistics on the website Sports-Reference.com (English)
• Site dedicated to Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergey Grinkov
• Another site about Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergey Grinkov