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Ekaterina Gordeeva laughs when fans approach her and her bouncy blonde Vontae Davis Authentic Jersey 10 year old daughter to comment on how Daria has grown.
"That's not Daria," she tells them. "That's a different daughter. Daria is almost http://www.coltsonlineprostore.com/WOMENS-JERRELL-FREEMAN-JERSEY.html 20 now."
Gordeeva was the 16 year old princess of the 1988 Calgary Olympics, winning pairs skating gold with partner Sergei Grinkov. The two married, had Daria in 1992, and returned to the Olympics to top the podium in Lillehammer in 1994.
She'll be in Chicago this weekend, performing with the Stars on Ice figure skating show 20 years after she and Grinkov completed their first tour there while she was pregnant. It's been two full and emotional decades for Gordeeva, who built a triumphant solo career after Grinkov's unexpected death in 1995.
Yet like many of the elite Erik Walden Jersey athletes who have made Stars on Ice successful for 26 seasons, Gordeeva says fans still know her best as the bright eyed teen at the Olympic games.
"They think I'm frozen in 1988," she said. "I totally understand why they think that. They're not supposed to be counting my years."
Stars on Ice continues to thrive when similar tours have shuttered by marketing both a highly produced theatrical show and elite athletic talent. skaters are Olympic medalists and all have won national or world titles. The cast is carefully balanced to include showmen to steal a scene, athletes with great jumping ability and graceful artists.
"I think Stars on Ice, year after year, has had the tradition of the top skaters in the world performing in it," said Kristi Yamaguchi, an Olympic gold medalist in 1992 and former Stars on Ice cast member. "If you're a skating fan, you're not just going to see excellent skating but also a well thought out show."
Having given up amateur competition after Lillehammer, Gordeeva has built a career both as a professional athlete and a professional Olympian. It's an opportunity unique to skating, where fans still turn out and tune in to see their favorites perform in shows like the one Brian Boitano staged in South Bend last fall and later aired on NBC.
"The Olympics is something people remember," Yamaguchi said. "The fan base starts there and goes out."
Gordeeva and Grinkov were working on a routine for Stars on Ice when he died of a heart attack in Erik Walden Limited Jersey 1995, leaving her a 24 year old widow and single mom. She returned to skating for a Stars show that paid tribute to Grinkov, and began a career as a solo artist.
Gordeeva says Daria has read "My Sergei: A Love Story," the memoir she published in 1996 recounting their partnership on and off the ice. Mother and daughter appeared together in a "Got Milk?" ad, a Christmas special, and an extensive campaign with Target stores through which Gordeeva released two fragrance lines.
She fell in love with Ilia Kulik, the 1998 Olympic gold coltsonlineprostore.com/WOMENS-DARIUS-BUTLER-JERSEY.html medalist in men's figure skating, while on the Stars tour and the couple had a daughter, Liza, in 2001. Gordeeva began coaching a little, making guest speaking appearances and performing off and on while raising her children.
In recent years Gordeeva, like Yamaguchi, has found a new audience through reality TV. She competed on "Dancing With The Stars" style programs in Russia and Canada, in which she skated pairs with first an actor and later a hockey player. She won both.
"I really wanted to try, because really, I'm a pairs skater," Gordeeva said. "For me it's normal to skate with someone else."
With Daria off at college and Liza growing into a competitive skater in her own right, Gordeeva thinks each year of stepping away from the spotlight. The travel takes its toll, as does the athleticism required of pairs skating.
Yet each year, she finds reason to return.
"When I feel tired, that's when I realize it's a job," Gordeeva said. "Stars on Ice is more than just a job, more than just skating even. Even Vontae Davis Limited Jersey though the people always change, for me to be a part of Stars on Ice, I feel like home there."
