Katarina Witt Bio - 1988 "Carmen"

Here's a link to the bio from the "official" Katarina Witt website. It's a bit out of date, as far as the schedule is concerned, but I think it's interesting, nonetheless.
The link takes you to a shot of Kat's 1988 Olympic "Carmen" long program - one which I remember very well, as I'm sure many of you do. Enjoy!

http://www.katarinawitt.de/index.html

What I will always remember most about Katarina is my impression that she was the ultimate "mentally tough" competitor. I wish she would bottle some of that quality and sell it to Sasha. In terms of comparison to the current era, I percieve only Plush in that category where Witt always seemed to be.


DG

Doggiegirl, I wish that for Sasha too. However, I believe Witt's mental toughness was developed through things that don't exist anymore.

KW was part of a system that reared you, taught you, and trained you. Her personal freedom was largely meted out and sparingly. Living in a Communist country of that era meant that you would probably do things (like supporting the comunist govt. Ms . Witt has be accused of being too friendly with her government...if you don't know what it is to live free and your government is footing the bill for you and your family's "lifestyle", then perhaps you'd be friendly with them too) It means that her coaches were chosen for her and most likely that she had little to any say about what the music was or what the costume would be...those decisions were made between the coach and the Bureau of Sports.

I think Kat must have known what she had to do to survive and succeed in the skating world. Yes, I wish she could impart her wisdom, but not at the price she paid. Until the end of the Berlin Wall, her plight was no pro skating unless approved, no "cheesefest" unless approved, no endorsements unless approved, no travel unless approved.

Witt has said herself that if she hadn't won the second gold medal she would never had the life she enjoys today. Love or hate Kat's skating, one can help but admire what she had to endure to get where she was. People have always made value judgements on her for decisions such as posing for Playboy,. However, anyone who knows all the facts of her upbringing and skating history certainly can't deny that she's a champion in every way.

Doggygirl said:

What I will always remember most about Katarina is my impression that she was the ultimate "mentally tough" competitor. I wish she would bottle some of that quality and sell it to Sasha. In terms of comparison to the current era, I percieve only Plush in that category where Witt always seemed to be.


DG

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Absolutely :agree: Katarina Witt wasn't the best skater of her era - she did not have the best school figures, the best jumps, the best spins, the best musical interpretation, the best posture, etc. -- but she was far and away the best competitor. She had the killer instinct, and she "kicked butt" whenever she competed. She was known to have mistake-laden competition practices, then take to the ice in the actual competitive skate and nail everything.

As another poster wrote, some of this might have been inbred in Kat from her East German upbringing. However, I personally think that she was just an incredible competitor, supremely focused, mentally tough, and able to control her nerves.

To me, Witt was the Chris Evert of the figure skating world. She really knew how to harness her energies to win performances, matches, and the like!

If Sasha Cohen had this mental toughness, would she ever dominate the skating world! IMHO, she would be practically unbeatable.

I think that like Cris Evert, Kat developed this mental toughness to enable her to win against more gifted competitors. I don't think that a skater like Sasha focuses on developing mental toughness because her talents and body type are ideally suited to skating.

soogar said:

I think that like Cris Evert, Kat developed this mental toughness to enable her to win against more gifted competitors. I don't think that a skater like Sasha focuses on developing mental toughness because her talents and body type are ideally suited to skating.

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I agree with you. Chris Evert's mental toughness enabled her to focus with deadly accuracy during her matches, and it carried her to Grand Slam victories at Wimbledon, the US Open and the French Open - titles she won at times over more talented athletes such as Evonne Goolagong of Austrialia and Martina Navritilova of Czechoslovakia - and later the US.

Goolagong was a joy to watch - she was a ballerina in sneakers, and the racquet
was a magic wand in her hand when she was on. Unfortunately, Evonne was prone to mental lapses - "walkabouts" - and she made mistakes at crucial points and games that cost her titles. Frankly, I thought she should have won at least one US title and two or three more Wimbledons, but that's just my opinion.

Katarina was a fierce competitor. He secret weapon was not so much her skating abilities, but her abilities to psych out her fellow competitors. She intimidated them during practice. She was one tough cookie!!

Ladskater said:

Katarina was a fierce competitor. He secret weapon was not so much her skating abilities, but her abilities to psych out her fellow competitors. She intimidated them during practice. She was one tough cookie!!

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Indeed, Ladskater. Katarina was a master at psyching out the competition. She had the habit of skating to the music her competitors used during their long program practices. Imagine the mental game that was - the World and Olympic champion skating and improvising to your music during your turn to skate! Witt later said she realized that wasn't very nice of her, but she just loved to skate and couldn't help herself. Hmmmm! :frown2:

"couldn't help herself." Yeah, right! She knew what she was doing.

Grgranny said:

"couldn't help herself." Yeah, right! She knew what she was doing.

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I agree with you - Kat knew exactly what she was doing. I wonder why the other competitors - Debi Thomas in particular - didn't return the favor and improvise to her music? How would Witt have enjoyed having the tables turned on her?