Ekaterina Gordeeva was born in Russia in 1971. Her father wanted her to be a ballerina, but she fell in love with figure skating instead. She started skating at the age of four just a year younger than they would be expected but a friend of her family's lied to get her in. At the age of 11 she was partnered up with Sergei Grinkov. After they won the junior world championships Katia realized that she was starting to have a crush on her partner who was four years older than her. They won the World Championships on the senior level the next year. While training for the 1988 Winter Olympics, Sergei slipped on a soft piece of ice dropping Katia on her head, causing her to go to hospital. It was after she returned she felt Sergei's feelings towards her had changed. She was 16 at those Olympics and skated to the gold. They went pro in 1990. By this time they were a couple. In 1991 Sergei asked Katia to marry him and without a doubt in her mind she said yes. She gave birth to their daughter Daria in September of 1992. In 1994 pros could return to the Olympics so they did and skated to another gold medal. Their love for each other was strong and they were very happy.Sadly all good things must come to an end and theirs did when Sergei died of a heart attack November 20, 1995 while practicing a new program with Katia. The next year she skated by herself for the first time in the tribute to Sergei called Sergei Grinkov: Celebration of a Life (1996) (TV). In 1999 she started dating Ilia Kulik the 1998 men's Olympic champion. They were married June 10, 2002 and she gave birth to a second daughter on June 15, 2001.