Gordeeva and Grinkov, pairs skating nostalgia

Longing for the old days in most sports just makes one seem cranky and provincial and, well, old.

But as I watch the pairs skating now at Skate America, where all that seems important is how far the man can throw the woman without the woman flying out of the arena or landing on her bottom, it seems obvious. Pairs skating used to be much better.

Here's the gold-medal free skate of Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway. It gave me goose bumps when I watched it in person in Hamar, and it gives me goosebumps now.  So did their 1994 short program -- then and now. That was pairs skating.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov pose for a photo during their heyday, when they won Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1994. Credit: Reuters

Comments

[Jessica Vargas]

Too true. Gordeeva and Grinkov are my absolute favorite pair of all time. I too long for the days when pairs skating was so elegant, perfect and smooth that it made spectators hold their breath and wish the program would never end. With all the difficult technical requirements in pairs figure skating nowadays, it seems almost impossible that we will ever again see pairs skating that can compare to the magic of G&G, or even to such pairs as Bechke and Petrov, Mishkutenok and Dmitriev, Meno and Sand, Kavarikova and Novotny, and Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze. For now I will just have to be content with watching these classic legends of pairs skating on youtube and hope that the current crop of teams do the same and learn from their example

[Jessica]

On the thirteenth anniversary of Sergei's death, I just had to revisit this post. For a better quality video of their '94 Olympic free skate, watch TripleAxel1996's upload:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZshHnjJQ-0
Other recommended G&G programs: 1995 Vocalise, 1993 Reverie, 1994 The Man I Love, 1994 Crazy for You, 1994 Porgy and Bess, 1992 Nutcracker Pas de Deux, 1988 Liebestraum, their 1988 Olympic long program, 1987 long and short programs, 1986 Katusha, 1986 Temptation Rag, 1986 Fly Doves