Sergei Grinkov

Sergei Grinkov
A 1998 stamp commemorating Gordeeva and Grinkov
Personal information
Native name	Серге́й Миха́йлович Гринько́в
Full name	Sergei Mikhailovich Grinkov
Country represented	Russia
Former country(ies) represented	Soviet Union
Born	(1967-02-04)February 4, 1967 Moscow, Soviet Union
Died	November 20, 1995(1995-11-20) (aged 28) Lake Placid, New York, U.S.
Residence	Moscow, Russia Simsbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Former partner	Ekaterina Gordeeva
Former coach	Stanislav Zhuk Stanislav Leonovich Vladimir Zaharov
Former choreographer	Marina Zueva Tatiana Tarasova
Skating club	CSKA Moscow Philadelphia SC & HS
Medal record Figure skating – Pairs Representing  Russia Olympic Games 1994 Lillehammer Pairs 1988 Calgary Pairs European Championships 1994 Cophenhagen Pairs Representing  Soviet Union World Championships 1986 Geneva Pairs 1987 Cincinnati Pairs 1989 Paris Pairs 1990 Halifax Pairs 1988 Budapest Pairs European Championships 1988 Prague Pairs 1990 Leningrad Pairs 1986 Copenhagen Pairs

Sergei Mikhailovich Grinkov (Russian: Серге́й Миха́йлович Гринько́в, February 4, 1967 — November 20, 1995) was a Russian pair skater. Together with partner and wife Ekaterina Gordeeva, he was the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion and a four-time World Champion.

Sergei Grinkov was born in Moscow to Anna Filipovna Grinkova and Mikhail Kondrateyevich Grinkov and had an older sister, Natalia Mikailovna Grinkova. He married Gordeeva in April 1991. They had two ceremonies because the USSR did not recognize religious ceremonies. The legal, official state-approved wedding was on April 20, and a religious wedding in the Russian Orthodox Church took place on April 28. On September 11, 1992, Gordeeva gave birth to their daughter, Daria "Dasha" Sergeyevna Grinkova, in Morristown, New Jersey. After the 1994 Olympics, they settled in Simsbury, Connecticut. Daria took up skating seriously at age 9, appearing with her mother in several skating shows from 2003–2007, but quit skating to pursue other interests in 2007.

Grinkov's father died of heart disease in 1991. His mother died in 2000 in Moscow.

Grinkov first took to the ice at the age of five, entering the Children and Youth Sports School of CSKA in Moscow. As Grinkov was not a strong solo skater, his coach decided to try him in pair skating, and in August 1981, at age fourteen, he was paired with eleven-year-old Ekaterina Gordeeva at the Central Red Army Club (CSKA) in Moscow by coach Vladimir Zaharov.

The pair won the 1985 World Junior Championship in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The following year they won the first of their four World Figure Skating Championships. They became repeat world champions the following year and won gold at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.