New Year's Weekend Figure Skating Blogging: Love and Death

Back in the days when Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov ruled the pairs figure skating event, I used to watch with a friend of mine and we'd both agree that while Gordeeva was truly magical, she really needed a better partner.

To say such things is heresy in the figure skating world, especially after Grinkov died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart ailment following a practice in 1995. No matter how overrated I might have thought he was, the idea of a well-trained 28-year-old athlete suddenly dropping dead, leaving his longtime on-ice partner and now-wife a preposterously young widow with a three-year-old was truly tragic.

It's an ill wind that blows no good, for while skating on her own with Scott Hamilton's Stars on Ice company, Gordeeva met 1998 Olympic Champion Ilia Kulik. They are now married with a five-year-old, and while they don't often skate as a pair, Gordeeva finally has a partner worthy of her talents.

Take a look at this program from the 1999-2000 Stars on Ice tour: