My Sergei: A Love Story by Ekaterina GordeevaMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ekaterina "Katia" Gordeeva is a Russian (former Soviet) figure skater. Together with her partner and husband, the late Sergei Grinkov, she was the 1988 Calgary and 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Champion and four-time World Champion in Pair Skating. I was drawn to this book for the insular experience she would have had in the Communist USSR. Her early life was doubly insular. Gordeeva began figure skating at age four, when she entered Children and Youth Sports School of CSKA Moscow. CSKA Moscow is a major Russian sports club based in Moscow. It is popularly referred to in the West as "Red Army" or "the Red Army team" because during the Soviet era, it was a part of the Armed Forces sports society, which in turn was associated with the Soviet Army. So, she was basically inducted into the Red Army's athlete mill and lived an almost cloistered life of training and performance. In 1991, they began with Stars on Ice, the vehicle for Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist in men's figure skating. This opened a door to capitalism and professional skating for profit during the end of the Soviet Era. The thrills and risks of freedom and a career without a safety net was an exciting and pivotal time for the athletes starting a bumpy road of highs and some lows ending suddenly with Sergei's death from a coronary to rehearsal and being the unfortunate impetus for Gordeeva's solo career.
As an outsider to skating I found I did not need to know the inside dope on the sport, or the Olympics, or even be interested in sports to enjoy this honest, revelatory, and forthcoming memoir.
One part of skating I found from this that I do not I could get from what I catch occasionally on TV is the personal and artistic impulses and themes expressed by the skating pair during prepared programs. This book is like the synopsis of a ballet for all their high-profile programs.
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