Ekaterina Gordeeva - Solo Career

Solo Career

In February 1996, Gordeeva returned to the ice, this time as a solo performer. Her first solo performance was a tribute to her late husband, skated to the 'Adagietto' section of Gustav Mahler's 'Symphony No. 5'. The number was publicly performed only twice, first at a preview performance at the Minto Skating Club in Ontario, Canada, and then on February 27, 1996, in a televised tribute to Grinkov, called "Celebration of a Life", in which numerous skating luminaries took part. Gordeeva has said that she felt as if she skated with Sergei that night, that she was "double strong" because she felt him with her. The same year, with the aid of author E. M. Swift, she told her story in a book titled My Sergei: A Love Story. In February 1998, CBS aired an eponymous docudrama based on the book. She published a second book in April, 1998, titled A Letter for Daria. In 1998, she told an interviewer that "My life of great skating, and skating with him, is over, ... I don't try to go now for Olympics. I take skating for a job."

Gordeeva returned to Stars on Ice as a solo skater in 1996 and toured with the show every year until 2000, when she took time off to give birth to her second daughter in June 2001. She has returned to the tour as a guest star many times, but has never returned to full-time touring. In addition to tours and shows, Gordeeva competed successfully as a professional solo skater, finishing as high as second place at the World Professional Championships (in 1997). She stopped competing in 2000, but continues to skate in professional skating tours, shows and competitions. While she has never returned to pair skating as a full-time endeavor, she has performed pair elements in many shows through the years with partners including Artur Dmitriev, Anton Sikharulidze, David Pelletier, and John Zimmerman. For the 1998–99 season of Stars on Ice, she and fellow Russians Ilia Kulik, Elena Bechke, and Denis Petrov performed a quartet which showcased her pair skills, and in 1999–2000, she and Kulik skated a romantic duet during the tour. She also briefly returned to pairs skating during the 2008–09 season when she participated in a Russian reality television show called "Ice Age 2", a figure skating version of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with Russian actor Egor Beroev, and together they won the show.

Ekaterina Gordeeva has signed several endorsement contracts, the most notable of which was with Target and led to two perfumes ("Katia" and "Katia Sport") which were sold through Target stores. Gordeeva and her daughter, Daria, appeared in the 1997 holiday movie "Snowden on Ice" and Gordeeva appeared in the 1998 sequel, "Snowden's Raggedy Ann and Andy Holiday Show". She has represented Rolex and also appeared with her daughter Daria in a "Got Milk?" ad.

In 2001, she was the subject of a Lenox figurine called "Katia's Celebration of Life", which depicts her performing a layback spin in the tribute she skated for Grinkov. She also appeared in the 2003 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue as a featured athlete. In 2003, she appeared on the ice for the first time with Daria. The pair performed a duet during a Mother's Day show and have taken the ice together several times since then, including two different versions of Amy Grant's "Children of the World" at Kristi Yamaguchi's "Family & Friends" shows in 2005 and 2006. During that show in 2007, the mother-daughter duo became a trio when they were joined by Gordeeva's younger daughter, Liza, and all three skated together to "Homesick" performed live by The Cheetah Girls. Daria gave up figure skating in 2007.

In 2007, Ekaterina Gordeeva starred in Skate for the Heart, a show designed to raise awareness of heart disease. She skated in honor of Sergei. In 2008, she flew to the United States from Russia during the taping of Ice Age 2 in order to headline Skate for the Heart a second time. This time, she dedicated a number to the memory of her own father, Alexander Gordeev, who died of an unexpected heart attack in 2008. In addition to her skating, Gordeeva has ventured into coaching and choreography.

In 2010 Gordeeva competed with hockey player Valeri Bure in the figure skating reality show Battle of the Blades. In the November 22, 2010 finale, she and Bure won the competition. Gordeeva rejoined Stars on Ice in November 2010 for the 25th Anniversary Tour.