Witt, Katarina (1965—)

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Witt, Katarina (1965—)

German figure skater, one of the last skating stars produced by the East German athletic training machine, who won six European championships, five world championships, and two Olympic gold medals. Born Katarina Witt in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz), in what was then the German Democratic Republic, in December 1965; daughter of Manfred Witt (a director of an agricultural cooperative) and Käthe "Katje" Witt (a physical therapist); trained at the Karl Marx Sports Club from a young age; never married; no children.

Won her first European championship (1982); won Olympic gold medal in figure skating (1984), and second Olympic gold medal (1988); in retirement from competitive skating, became television sports commentator for Olympics (1992); returned to Olympic skating at Lillehammer, Norway (1994); became a major staple of the professional figure-skating circuit; appeared in films, including Ronin, and in television roles, including HBO's "Arli$$."

In the late years of the Cold War that evolved between the East and the West after World War II, the career of the figure skater Katarina Witt came to epitomize how that international power struggle was played out through athletic contests. For several decades, when athletes from East German and Soviet countries vied against athletes from the West in international competitions—particularly the Olympics—wins and losses on the playing field of a number of sports were totted up as political. Regardless of how governments viewed the outcome, however, there were always some competitors who simply caught the fancy of sports fans. Thus it was that Katarina Witt, with all her Communist-backed training, was adored by millions in the West for the elegance of her performances on ice.

Witt was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) in Saxony, German Democratic Republic, in December 1965. Her mother Käthe Witt was a physical therapist while her father Manfred Witt directed a cooperative that produced plants and seeds. Like her brother Axel, Katarina was athletic; he played soccer, while she was attracted to the ice rink. As a little girl, she would stop by Küchwald, a neighborhood ice arena, to watch the skaters. The first time she stepped onto the ice, she thought, "This is for me."

Witt had not been skating long when Bernd Egert, the head coach of the Karl-Marx-Stadt Club and school, spotted her and recognized her immediately as a natural. The club was one of the four major government-sponsored clubs, where some of East Germany's best athletes were trained, and Egert soon recruited Witt for the school's intensive training program. (Her selection had also involved inherited factors. According to Egert, "If the parents are too tall or have a tendency to be naturally heavy, these qualities mean the children are not suited for skating.") For Witt, life changed forever once she became a member of the East German "sports machine." "We never played at home," she said. "I left at six-thirty in the morning and I came back at six in the evening. There was only time to do your homework, then have dinner, and go to bed."

When Katarina was nine, her talent drew the attention of Jutta Müller , East Germany's most successful skating coach. Many of Müller's students were international and Olympic medal winners. "In many ways I am closer to Jutta than anyone," said Witt of the woman who became her surrogate mother. By the time Witt was 11, Müller's impact was apparent on the ice, when the girl made her first triple jump, called a "Salchow." As Witt entered into competition, Müller oversaw every detail of the young skater's life, choosing her costumes and choreographing her routines on the ice. Noting Witt's natural warmth, Müller encouraged her to let it shine through in performance, teaching her to pick one male face out of the audience crowd and perform solely for him. The coach spent countless hours fussing over Witt's makeup, coiffure, and every element of her personal style.

At age 14, Witt finished tenth in a World championship. Two years later, in 1982, she won her first European championship. From the beginning, her strength was as a performer, not simply an athlete. In competition, she hated skating compulsory figures, an endless series of figure eights, circles, and turns; she preferred doing the more elaborate double loop jumps and double Axels. Where she truly excelled, however, was in the four-minute freestyle or long program which let her artistic talent come to the fore. In many respects, she was as much a dancer as a skater. Witt loved skating to music of her own choosing, playing to the audience and creating a performance requiring countless hours of practice that raised her skills to the level of an art. Eleven months a year, she spent up to six hours a day on the ice, then worked on music, ballet, and choreography for as much as three more hours.

With the approach of the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, two Americans, Rosalynn Sumners and Elaine Zayak , were expected to dominate the ice. Zayak had won the World title in 1982, Sumners in 1983; Katarina Witt was a relative unknown. Although compulsory figures had never been Witt's strength, she performed much better in them than did Zayak. Sumners remained in the lead until the short program, when Witt inched ahead. When the free-style skating program was all that stood between Witt and an Olympic gold medal, she was dazzling. According to Sumners, "Her Sarajevo performance was the first to hit the perfect blend of art and athleticism, pirouettes and panache." In the East German girl with the creamy complexion, dark hair, blue eyes, and perfect figure to complement her athletic abilities, the world discovered a new sports star.

The young East German received 35,000 pieces of fan mail, much of it from Americans. This product of the Eastern bloc sports machine in no way fit the stereotype of the impassive female athlete. She was graceful, elegant, flirtatious, and loved wearing jeans, going to discos, and driving sports cars. Although some tried to maintain that years of intense training damaged Eastern bloc athletes psychologically, there was no evidence in her of any ill effects. Questioned by the Western media, she always acknowledged her gratitude for the coaching and facilities made available to her, saying "few people could afford the training I have been given. Here, all you need is talent and desire." Parents of many American skaters could confirm this advantage, having gone nearly bankrupt trying to provide for their children what skaters like Witt received for free. But "Katarina the Great," as East Germans called her, now received much more than free training. She was rewarded with a penthouse apartment, a country retreat, a Porsche as well as a Lada sports car, clothes and cash. Because their salaries were tied directly to winning medal competitions, Jutta Müller and Bernd Egert benefited as well. From 1984 to 1988, Witt lost only one competition, the 1986 World championships held in Geneva, Switzerland, in which she was bested by American Debi Thomas ; the following year, Witt took the title back.

With the approach of the 1988 Olympics, however, Witt was feeling the political heat. As she won more and more competitions, the pressure mounted. Said Witt:

The 1988 Olympics were much more difficult for me. I had no clue in 1984; it was just another competition. But in Calgary, the moment I stepped onto the ice, I realized so many people were watching and my life depended on winning the gold medal. If I would be second, it would have been a major loss for the country. They never would have let me keep skating, and I knew it.

The pressures went deeper. The German Democratic Republic, still under Soviet control, was run by the secret police, known as the Stasi, who accumulated files on millions of East German citizens and encouraged neighbors to spy on neighbors. Star athletes were also expected to do their part for the Stasi. "They asked me to spy for them," said Witt, "and I would get all my endorsement contracts. They were worth a couple million dollars. I turned them down." Always quick to promote the East German system which had turned her into a superstar, Witt found herself forced to keep quiet about its dark side. "In East Germany nothing worked without the Stasi," she said. "They were everywhere." Under constant surveillance, Witt also was expected to light up the ice every time she stepped out onto the rink.

I do not want people to come up to me one day and say, "Aren't you that skater who used to be famous?" I am, and I will be, much more than that.
—Katarina Witt

At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, British Columbia, Witt found herself in the media spotlight, surrounded by scores of international reporters interested in every aspect of her career. The press had dubbed that year's women's figure-skating competition the "Battle of the Carmens," after both Witt and her American rival, Debi Thomas, had chosen to skate to the music of Bizet's opera. The two were very different skaters. The African-American Thomas was much more athletic than her East German counterpart, using choreography that stressed powerful leaps and turns; Witt had been trained for free by some of the world's best coaches while Thomas skated in tight secondhand boots, sewed her own costumes, repaired her skates with Elmer's glue, and choreographed her own routines. Planning to be a surgeon, Thomas struggled through school and through skating, without the rewards of penthouses or sports cars; and in the previous four years in international competition, Witt had lost only to Thomas.

On the ice or in a shopping mall, Witt had the media eating out of her hand. Debi Thomas, more abrupt and more direct, did not exude the natural star quality of her competitor. In addition, there was no love lost between the two skaters. And while the media was mesmerized by the "two Carmens," the judges' favorite was thought to be Canada's Elizabeth Manley , judged in some circles to be the best skater both technically and artistically. Thomas' artistic skills needed refining. In the compulsory figures, which counted for 20% of the score, Manley skated to first place, Thomas to second and Witt to third. During the short program, Witt's behavior was also faulted when she stayed on the edge of the rink watching Thomas execute the seven required moves. Some said Witt made Thomas nervous, though the American was perfect; going into the long program, which counts for 50% of the score, Thomas was first, Witt second, and Manley third. Thomas now aimed to demonstrate her superior athleticism, jumping higher and more often, but her program proved reckless.

Then Katarina Witt came on the ice, resplendent in red. Sensual in a way no other figure skater had ever been in competition, she quickly captivated both the audience and the judges. Technically her performance may have been weak, but artistically it was a triumph. Thomas, on the other hand, performed dismally, at least making the decision clear; poor landings and jumps cost her not only the gold but also the silver, which went to Manley. Katarina Witt joined the elite company of Sonja Henie , winning her second gold medal for figure skating. On February 21, 1988, Phil Hershe rhapsodized in the Chicago Tribune, "Thomas skates brilliantly to Carmen. Witt is Carmen." Many felt Witt relied too heavily on flirting instead of technique. Pete Axthelm for Newsweek wrote: "She hardly seemed to skate. She flirted. In the slow segment of her Carmen program, she threw risk-taking to the wind. In lieu of daring jumps, the East German beauty seemed content to seek points with her coy shrugs, come-hither expressions and smiling eyes." Of her performance Witt said, "I want to be remembered as starting a new era in figure skating, where one tries to express the music, tell the whole story."

After the 1988 Olympics, Katarina Witt retired from competitive skating. In November 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, signifying the end of the Cold War, East Germany, and the state-financed athletic training cocoon which had nurtured her. Inevitably, there was some backbiting as Witt was criticized for her luxurious lifestyle in the former Communist country. She made no apologies, maintaining that stars in any country were given special privileges, and also pointed out the endorsements she had forfeited by refusing to cooperate with the Stasi. At the same time, she refused to repudiate completely the system which had trained her, a stance she has never abandoned.

Meanwhile, Witt and American skater Brian Boitano had become close friends, and the two began collaborating on an ice show. Joined by such world champions as Alexander Fadeev, Oleg Vasiliev, Elena Valova , Paul Martini, and Barbara Underhill , they built a show around acts that were both romantic and theatrical, with a far more athletic, demanding, and sophisticated style of skating than that of traditional ice shows. From childhood, both Witt and Boitano had skated solo, but now wanted to change their styles for this commercial endeavor. "We both like to express feelings and live within the characters and the story," said Witt. "I think more about a character when I'm with someone on the ice, so the acting is better." The tour was a triumph, and the possibilities for television specials, films, and other ice shows lay ahead. Witt also profited from endorsements such as Coca-Cola and was a television commentator for the 1992 Olympics. Everywhere she went, she was pursued by fans, and unlike some former Olympians, she flourished in the limelight.

By the time of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, women's skating had changed enormously. In the six years since Witt had won the gold, figure skating had become much more athletic. In the view of many, the sport that had once seemed very close to ballet now seemed to more closely resemble gymnastics. Realizing that she would not be able to compete at the same level as the new figure-skating stars, Witt had returned to her old rink in Karl-Marx-Stadt, now called Chemnitz, to train under Jutta Müller. For a year, she had subjected herself to the old discipline and worked hard to make the German team.

When she arrived in Lillehammer, the media was riveted by the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding scandal. During the final skating competition, Kerrigan, who had largely recovered from an attack instigated by Harding's former husband, skated exquisitely, dressed like a princess. Oksana Baiul , the young Russian skater, wooed audiences in pink. Witt wore a costume modeled on Robin Hood, because, she noted, "I didn't want to be accused of seducing the judges this time." Dedicating her program to the people of wartorn Sarajevo, Witt skated to the antiwar anthem "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," reminding audiences worldwide of the Olympics which had taken place there in 1984, a time

when the peoples of the Balkans had lived in peace. The performance showed her typical grace, but she missed a triple loop when her hand touched the ice, and she had to turn a triple Salchow into a double. By the end, it was obvious that she was not nearly as athletic as her competitors that night, and she turned to the crowd with a sad smile, mouthing the words, "I'm sorry." To her surprise, the fans, tired of the tawdry antics which had dominated the championship, exploded into applause, showing their lasting affection for Witt. Although she placed seventh in the competition, far below what she once would have found acceptable, she knew the performance was still a triumph.

Dividing her time between Berlin and New York, Witt continued to perform with Boitano, and to do television commentary for international skating events. Now, she also has time to go to a ballet, a concert, or movies, or enjoy the simple pleasure of watching a sunset in the mountains or a sunrise at the beach. "I don't want to compete," she has said. "I want to skate for the joy."