Despite Skater’s Death, a Grieving Ice Show Must Go On : 10th Annual Tour Loses Some Luster; ‘It’s Just Been Hard’

This year’s “Stars on Ice” tour, which stops Friday at the Pond of Anaheim, was intended to be a joyful observance of the show’s 10th anniversary.

But on Nov. 20, the celebration took an unexpected, tragic turn. Sergei Grinkov, the 1988 and 1994 Olympic pairs champion from Moscow, collapsed and died of a heart attack at age 28 while preparing for the show with his wife and partner, Ekaterina “Katya” Gordeeva, at a rink in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Two months later, the tour’s 12 remaining cast members and its producers are coping in true “show must go on” fashion.

“It’s just been hard,” said “Stars on Ice” co-founder and producer Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic men’s champion, his customary ebullience nowhere in evidence during the phone conversation. “I really loved being around them. We had a good relationship--having dinner, hitting the beach, bowling.”

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He is conscious of the couple’s absence on and off the ice. “Now, it’s not so much a horrible grief . . . but it’s learning how to think of [Grinkov] and laugh, how to keep it positive. But then sometimes it’ll be like someone’s kicked me in the stomach.”

For Paul Wylie, a 1992 Olympic silver medalist, grief “comes in patches. I’m not as aware now that they’re not there, but I’ll be honest--I think it’s denial.

“There’s a level beyond which you almost can’t grieve any more. Katya said it best when she said, ‘Just smile and remember his smile.’ She wants us to go on with the tour. I think it’s going to take at least through the summer before we can fully process it.”

Gordeeva and Grinkov’s fellow countrywoman and competitor Elena Bechke, 1992 Olympic silver medalist with partner Denis Petrov--met the couple 13 years ago.

“I miss them badly,” she said. “They were always like a goal--we tried to be like them. We used to watch them every practice. It helped us to grow up, to skate even better. Everyone could learn from them. Especially how they loved each other, how they supported each other. They were always holding hands.”

After Grinkov’s death, Gordeeva and their 3-year-old daughter, Daria, returned to their home in Connecticut. The Feb. 27 “Stars on Ice” show in Hartford, including appearances by other skater friends, is scheduled to be a benefit for Gordeeva and Daria.

The tour, though still showing a sense of the decade’s celebration, has consequently become a “bittersweet” affair, said coproducer-director Sandra Bezic, who had to make production changes quickly, while dealing with grief.

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At the point in the opening group number where Gordeeva and Grinkov would have appeared, for instance, the spotlight now shines an empty circle at center ice.

One production number was eliminated. To replace the duo’s music in the finale, which had been a Beatles medley celebrating cast members’ feeling of family, Bezic chose George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun,” featuring Wylie and 1984 and ’88 Olympic champion Katarina Witt.

“It’s about remembering, and moving on,” she said. “It’s about them, and the [skaters] having to deal with it in their own private ways. It’s been a long, cold winter, and now the sun is out. It’s bright, and hopeful.”

* What: “Stars on Ice.”

* When: Friday at 8 p.m.

* Where: The Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim.

* Whereabouts: From the Orange (57) Freeway, exit at Ball Road and drive east. Turn right on Auto Center Drive to parking lots.

* Wherewithal: $27.50 to $39.50.

* Where to call: (714) 704-2500 or (714) 740-2000 (Ticketmaster).