Post by Admin on Jan 7, 2014 8:11:12 GMT -6
March 1986
From the Stuttgarter Zeitung (Germany:
FROM NOWHERE TO THE THRONE OF PAIRS
by Guido Dobbratz
translated by Stefanie Ludwig
The enormous charisma of the 14 year old Ekaterina Gordeeva
- A triumphal advance like Rodnina/Saizev?
She has got the same charisma as the former Olympic champion in gymnastics, Olga Korbut, she whirls similar spiritedly over the ice and you could forget that she is only fourteen years old while the cameras are focused on her. The eyes of the judges and the people in the audience are mostly turned towards her, and they hardly see the partner at her side. Perhaps, this is the secret of the surprising victory of Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov who defeated the Olympic champions and title-holders Valova/Vassiliev at the World Championships in Geneva and, earlier than expected, they made a change in leadership at international pairs skating sure.
Coach Stanislav Zhuk sat full of satisfaction at the success of his new master pair at the midnight press conference. He, who had also guided Irina Rodnina and her two partners Alexei Ulanov and Alexandr Saizev to an incomparable triumphal advance, brought his new charges together at the army sports club CSKA in Moscow four years ago. "You've already been able to recognize in those days that these two fit perfectly together concerning their eagerness, temperament and ambition." Stanislav Zhuk let find out by sports scientists and orthopaedists that the tiny Ekaterina Gordeeva is made to be a pairs skater due to her genetic factors. The daughter of a dancer from Moscow is able to bend herself like a coil and to flick up in the air with the appropriate speed because she is so delicate and - as she weighs only 35 kg - she is light as a feather.
Due to that, the acrobatic elements of the long program which she skated by her partner's side, Sergei Grinkov, who is five years older and almost two heads taller, seem to be even more spectacular, the audience is intensively enthralled by this pair. And everyone who talks about the relationship of a man and a child concerning this pair, doesn't give justice to their performance. The Muscovites show - especially during slow sequences - an enormous intuitive understanding, the different proportions are cleverly hidden.
The mixture of childlike naivety and sporty athletics resulted also in the meteoric rise of Gordeeva and Grinkov in the international pairs skating scene. They rose like a phoenix from the ashes with their victory at Skate Canada, their first place at the junior World Championships in Sarajevo, their silver medal at the European Championships in Copenhagen and now, they ascended to the highest throne in pairs skating during their first appearance at World Championships.
"Nevertheless, it would have been better for the development of pairs skating, if the defending champions Valova/Vassiliev or even the Muscovites Selezneva/Makarov who were only in fourth place had won the gold medal here in Geneva", believed, for example, the former Olympic champions in pairs skating Beloussova/Protopopov who came from their new adoptive country Grindelwald/Switzerland. The former coach of the German team, Erich Zeller, had also his doubts: "Originally, we wanted to come back to a pairs skating of equal partners but now, acrobatic and spectacular elements were judged higher."
Stanislav Zhuk left these discussions about his new "pair wonder" cold and he promised new difficult elements: "Ekaterina can also do quadruple throws and we'll create the program with triple jumps almost as difficult as a solo program." Zhuk trusts on this occasion in the athletic advantages of Sergei Grinkov whose father once was a highly-decorated champion of sports in wrestling.
The youngest World Champions in the history of pairs skating could start a similar triumphal advance like in former times Rodnina/Saizev, however they could also increase the helplessness of other nations. Already in Geneva, actually only the Canadians Coull/Rawsom who were decorated with the bronze medal were to some extent able to keep up with the rhythm of the Soviet pairs. [...]
From the Stuttgarter Zeitung (Germany:
FROM NOWHERE TO THE THRONE OF PAIRS
by Guido Dobbratz
translated by Stefanie Ludwig
The enormous charisma of the 14 year old Ekaterina Gordeeva
- A triumphal advance like Rodnina/Saizev?
She has got the same charisma as the former Olympic champion in gymnastics, Olga Korbut, she whirls similar spiritedly over the ice and you could forget that she is only fourteen years old while the cameras are focused on her. The eyes of the judges and the people in the audience are mostly turned towards her, and they hardly see the partner at her side. Perhaps, this is the secret of the surprising victory of Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov who defeated the Olympic champions and title-holders Valova/Vassiliev at the World Championships in Geneva and, earlier than expected, they made a change in leadership at international pairs skating sure.
Coach Stanislav Zhuk sat full of satisfaction at the success of his new master pair at the midnight press conference. He, who had also guided Irina Rodnina and her two partners Alexei Ulanov and Alexandr Saizev to an incomparable triumphal advance, brought his new charges together at the army sports club CSKA in Moscow four years ago. "You've already been able to recognize in those days that these two fit perfectly together concerning their eagerness, temperament and ambition." Stanislav Zhuk let find out by sports scientists and orthopaedists that the tiny Ekaterina Gordeeva is made to be a pairs skater due to her genetic factors. The daughter of a dancer from Moscow is able to bend herself like a coil and to flick up in the air with the appropriate speed because she is so delicate and - as she weighs only 35 kg - she is light as a feather.
Due to that, the acrobatic elements of the long program which she skated by her partner's side, Sergei Grinkov, who is five years older and almost two heads taller, seem to be even more spectacular, the audience is intensively enthralled by this pair. And everyone who talks about the relationship of a man and a child concerning this pair, doesn't give justice to their performance. The Muscovites show - especially during slow sequences - an enormous intuitive understanding, the different proportions are cleverly hidden.
The mixture of childlike naivety and sporty athletics resulted also in the meteoric rise of Gordeeva and Grinkov in the international pairs skating scene. They rose like a phoenix from the ashes with their victory at Skate Canada, their first place at the junior World Championships in Sarajevo, their silver medal at the European Championships in Copenhagen and now, they ascended to the highest throne in pairs skating during their first appearance at World Championships.
"Nevertheless, it would have been better for the development of pairs skating, if the defending champions Valova/Vassiliev or even the Muscovites Selezneva/Makarov who were only in fourth place had won the gold medal here in Geneva", believed, for example, the former Olympic champions in pairs skating Beloussova/Protopopov who came from their new adoptive country Grindelwald/Switzerland. The former coach of the German team, Erich Zeller, had also his doubts: "Originally, we wanted to come back to a pairs skating of equal partners but now, acrobatic and spectacular elements were judged higher."
Stanislav Zhuk left these discussions about his new "pair wonder" cold and he promised new difficult elements: "Ekaterina can also do quadruple throws and we'll create the program with triple jumps almost as difficult as a solo program." Zhuk trusts on this occasion in the athletic advantages of Sergei Grinkov whose father once was a highly-decorated champion of sports in wrestling.
The youngest World Champions in the history of pairs skating could start a similar triumphal advance like in former times Rodnina/Saizev, however they could also increase the helplessness of other nations. Already in Geneva, actually only the Canadians Coull/Rawsom who were decorated with the bronze medal were to some extent able to keep up with the rhythm of the Soviet pairs. [...]