Katarina Witt - Competitive Career

Competitive Career

Witt represented the SC Karl-Marx-Stadt club for East Germany (GDR). Jutta Müller began coaching her in 1977. Witt trained six days a week, sometimes for seven hours a day with three hours spent on compulsory figures.

Witt made her first appearance in a major international competition at the 1979 European Championships, finishing 14th at the event. She placed on a major podium for the first time in 1982, winning silver at both the European and World Championships. The next season, she won her first European title but finished off the World podium in 4th place.

In 1984, Witt was voted "GDR female athlete of the year" by the readers of the East German newspaper Junge Welt. She narrowly won the 1984 Olympic title in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, over the favoured contender, reigning World champion Rosalynn Sumners of the United States. Witt and Sumners held the top two spots heading into the Olympic free skate, which was worth 50% of the total score. Witt landed three triple jumps in her free skate program, and the judges left room for Sumners to win the event. Sumners scaled back two of her jumps and Witt won the long program by one-tenth of a point on one judge's scorecard. Witt then went on to win her first World title.

Witt successfully defended her World title in 1985 but placed second to American Debi Thomas the following year. In 1987, Witt won her third World title. Although Witt finished fifth in compulsory figures, which meant that Thomas could finish second in both the short and long programs and still retain the World title, Thomas' 7th place in the short program put the two skaters on a level playing field ahead of the free skate. Witt landed five triple jumps, including a triple loop jump. Although Thomas also skated a strong long program, Witt was ranked first by the majority of the nine judges and reclaimed the World title.

In 1988, Witt won her sixth consecutive European Championship, equaling the achievement of Sonja Henie as the most successful skater in ladies' singles at the European Championships. Both Witt's and Henie's number of European titles have been surpassed since by Irina Slutskaya but Witt retains the record of most consecutive European titles, sharing it with Henie.

Both Witt and Thomas were favoured contenders at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. Their rivalry was known as the "Battle of the Carmens", as each woman had independently elected to skate her long program to music from Bizet's opera Carmen. They held the top two spots after the compulsory figures and the short program. Witt landed four triple jumps and downgraded her planned triple loop jump to a double loop. This left room for Thomas to win the long program, but Thomas missed three of her planned five triple jumps. Canadian skater Elizabeth Manley won the long program, but Witt retained her Olympic title based on her overall scores (she had finished ahead of Manley in both the compulsory figures and the short program). Witt became only the second woman in figure skating history (after Sonja Henie) to defend her Olympic title.

To honour Witt and her win in Calgary, North Korea issued miniature sheets with three large pictures of Witt on the ice. Time magazine called her "the most beautiful face of socialism."

In 1988, Witt started a professional career – rare for East German athletes. She spent three years on tour in the United States with Brian Boitano, also an Olympic champion. Their show "Witt and Boitano Skating" was so successful that for the first time in ten years, New York's Madison Square Garden was sold out for an ice show. Later, she continued at Holiday on Ice in the United States and in western Europe. She also became an actress in the film Carmen on Ice (1989), which expanded upon her gold medal free program in Calgary. In 1990, she received an Emmy Award for her role in this film.

In 1994, Witt made a comeback to the competitive skating scene, coached again by Jutta Müller. Witt's first international competition for the reunified country of Germany, following eleven years competing for East Germany, was the 1994 European Championships, where she finished 8th. She qualified for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, where she finished 7th. Her free program to the music “Sag mir wo die Blumen sind” (an arrangement of the Pete Seeger folksong "Where Have All the Flowers Gone") included a peace message for the people of Sarajevo, the site of her first Olympic victory. She received the Golden Camera for her Olympic comeback.

Witt's taste in figure skating costumes sometimes caused debate. At the 1983 European Championships, she skated her Mozart short program in knee breeches instead of a skirt. Her blue skirtless feather-trimmed 1988 costume for a showgirl-themed short program was considered too theatrical and sexy, and led to a change in the ISU regulations which required female skaters to wear more modest clothing, including skirts. In 1994, skating a Robin Hood-themed program, she again pushed the boundaries of costume regulations by wearing a short tunic over leggings.

In 1994, Witt published her autobiography Meine Jahre zwischen Pflicht und Kür (My Years between Compulsories and Freestyle). In 1995, Witt was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Her farewell from show skating tour took place in February and March 2008.