Witt, Katarina

She studied with the trainer from the German Democratic Republic Jutta Müller in the sports club SK Karl-Marx-Stadt . In 1977 she made her debut in the championship of the GDR . In 1979, she took 3rd place in the GDR championship and debuted at the World Championships .

Often performed unsuccessfully in mandatory figures, but was distinguished by exceptionally harmonious short and arbitrary programs. One of the first in the history of the world championships performed a triple flip jump (1981). In 1984-1988 she owned only two triple jumps, a sheepskin coat and salchow , with the exception of the 1987 World Cup, where she also submitted to the triple rittberger .

November 1, 1988 in honor of her victory at the Olympics in the DPRK , a block of stamps was released ^[1] .

Having completed an amateur career in 1988, she performed in professional ice shows . In 1989, Witt began to work under a contract with the Holiday Ice on the American ice ballet troupe. In 1992, she became the world champion among professionals. In the professional arena, her partners were Brian Boytano and Brian Orser . After allowing professional performances at the Olympics, she took part in her third Winter Olympics in 1994 , where she took 7th place ^[2] .

In 1996, the film "The Ice Princess" (joint Germany-USA) with Katarina in the title role was released, and in 1998 the film " Ronin " was released, where she starred in the episodic role of the Russian figure skater Natasha Kirillova.

Time magazine called Witt "the most beautiful face of socialism." In 1998, 32-year-old Katarina participated in an erotic photo shoot for Playboy magazine , which sought the consent of the skater for 10 years. A series of impressive photographs was published in the December issue, in which a completely naked athlete poses against the backdrop of tropical nature, under a waterfall. In a published interview that accompanied the photo shoot, Witt explained that she had decided to take this step at the request of her friend, who wanted to see these photos in the magazine. The number with the participation of Katarina was among the five best-selling for all the years of the existence of Playboy magazine. The amount of the fee received by Witt is kept secret, however, specifying that it was a "decent amount" ^{[3] [4]} .

In 2008, 42-year-old Katarina Witt decided to finally say goodbye to ice. From February 16 to March 4, farewell performances of the "Star Show" were held in eight cities in Germany ^{[5] [6]} .

At the end of her skater career, Witt planned to run television programs, produce ice shows, and devote more time to the charity foundation she founded in 2006, which helps disabled children. In 2010, Katarina led the application for Munich to host the 2018 Olympics ^[7] .

As of 2015, Witt periodically acts in films, in particular, she can be seen in the movie " Jerry Maguire " with Tom Cruise . Katarina runs programs on German television, is a judge in the German version of the show "Stars on Ice" ^[8] .

Katarina Witt is not married, no children. Lives in Berlin , where she has an apartment. In an interview for the Russian press, Witt mentioned that in her life there was a happy love and serious relationship with men, however, for the sake of marriage, she could not afford to sacrifice the profession and stop doing her favorite job. He travels a lot around the world, often in Moscow. Katarina is fluent in English and quite tolerably in Russian ^[4] .

•   Wikimedia Commons has media related to Katarina Witt
• Official Website (German )
• Katarina Witt - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com