Katarina Witt

Katarina Witt (, ; born 3 December 1965) is a German former figure skater.

A two-time Olympic champion, Witt is regarded as one of the greatest ladies' singles figure skaters of all time.

Her Laureus profile states "she is remembered most for her overall athleticism, her charismatic appeal and her glamorous image on the ice."

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.

At the 1981 World Championships, she placed 1st in the short, 3rd in the long, and 2nd in the combined free skate, missing a medal due to low placement in figures.

She placed on a major podium for the first time in 1982, winning silver at both the European and World Championships.

She had a great shot at winning the 1982 World Championships, which she only required winning the long program to do.

However, she stepped out of three jumps, including the legendary triple flip, the complex element she was the very first woman to accomplish, and a relatively easy double axel, which cost her the long program win and the overall gold medal.

The eventual winner of the competition was Elaine Zayak, who landed six triples.

The next season, she won her first European title but finished off the World podium in fourth place, because she was 8th in compulsory figures despite winning the combined free skating.

Had she placed 1st in the long program instead of 2nd (on a 5–4 split) to Sumners, she would have jumped to the silver over both Leistner and Vodorezova.

Her free skate with a triple flip and five triples was technically superior to Sumners', and many believed she should have taken the crucial 1st place in this phase.

She won six consecutive European Championships (1983–1988), a feat only equalled by Sonja Henie among female skaters.

Witt won the first of her two Olympic gold medals for East Germany at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, before winning a second at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

She is one of only two skaters to defend a ladies' singles Olympic title, the other being Norwegian Sonja Henie.

Witt is a four-time World Champion (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988) and two-time World silver medalist (1982, 1986).

Between 1984 and 1988, Witt won ten golds from eleven major international events, making her one of the most successful figure skaters.

In 1984, Witt was voted "GDR Female Athlete of the Year" by the readers of the East German newspaper Junge Welt.

She won the 1984 Olympic title in Sarajevo, with reigning World champion Rosalynn Sumners of the United States in second.

Witt and Sumners held the top two spots heading into the Olympic free skate, which was worth fifty percent 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 won the gold medal aged 18 years and 77 days, becoming one of the youngest Olympic figure skating champions.

Witt then went on to win her first World title in dominant fashion (without Sumners) winning all three phases of the competition.

Witt successfully defended her World title in 1985.

Here, she was solid and clean in all three phases, placing 3rd to her two main competitors, Kira Ivanova and Tiffany Chin, in the compulsory figures, convincingly winning the short program even over the clean skates of Ivanova and Chin.

In the long program, she was put under pressure by Ivanova who made a strong bid for the gold with a clean three-triple long program including a difficult triple loop, but Witt trumped her with a four-triple long program, highlighting her superior artistry to Ivanova's and overtaking her by six judges to three in the long program as well as overall.

The judges left room for Chin to win the long program and event, but unfortunately she fell on a double axel and did not complete a triple salchow in her performance, settling for the bronze medal.

Witt's longstanding gold-medal dominance of the sport was finally disrupted when in an upset she placed second to American Debi Thomas, the new United States Champion, the following year.

At those Worlds, she did win the long program over Thomas's clean skate with identical content, scoring two 6.0s for artistic impression, but a combination miss which left her 4th in the short cost her the gold.

Retiring from competitive skating after defending her Olympic title in 1988, Witt reappeared at the 1994 Winter Olympics where she represented a reunified Germany while skating a Robin Hood-themed program, a comeback performance which saw her receive the Goldene Kamera award.

Since her subsequent retirement, Witt has worked in film and television.

Witt was born in Staaken (at that time a district of Falkensee) in East Germany, just outside West Berlin, which is today part of Berlin.

Her mother worked in a hospital as a physiotherapist and her father was a farmer.

She went to school in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now reverted to its pre-war name Chemnitz).

There, she attended the Kinder- und Jugendsportschule, a special school for athletically talented children.

Witt represented the SC Karl-Marx-Stadt club for East Germany (GDR).

She said then she planned to continue a while longer but did not see herself likely making it to the 1988 Calgary Olympics.