Katarina Witt: why the famous figure skater is not married and has no children. Katharina Witt - a girl from a city that does not exist Katharina Witt what is she doing now
Incomparable and incomparable. "Here she rushes to the music from Carmen. Long-legged, graceful, flirtatious, seductive. Her Carmen is impudent, but when she calms down in the arena and smiles at someone, everyone thinks that the smile is intended only for him. This cannot be learned, with "You have to be born this way. And yet, she adds a 'little bit' of sex to everything, which makes Katarina even more charming." These lines were written in 1988 not by a poet who had lost his head in love, but by a coach known for his brutal rigor. It turns out that the queen threw him at her feet.
“My life never belonged to me,” Katarina Witt now admits. “I once believed that the personal begins outside the ice rink, but, my God, how naive I was!” She had barely grown out of childhood when the GDR Ministry of State Security opened a dossier on the young, beautiful athlete, which by the time of German reunification had swelled to eight volumes. A lot of things are turned inside out there - and the most intimate, secret, happened or invented, in any case, exclusively personal, not touching other people's eyes and thoughts.
Here is an extract from an intelligence report dated November 21, 1988: “The person who remained in the facility turned out to be K. Witt, and the male person was Mr. X. From 6.00 to 6.18 they had sexual intercourse.” "Persona" is an American figure skater with whom Katarina spoke in English. The informer, who did not know the language and did not have the material to denounce, composed, in the words of the athlete, “this deceitful sexual plot.” Another “secret document” reported that “from 20.00 Witt had intimate relations with the trainer, which ended at 20.07.”
Love stories - often empty gossip - accompany the brilliant figure skater throughout her life. Several English newspapers, Katharina recalls, reported after Boris Becker’s defeat at the Wimbledon tournament that “the ice princess from the GDR consoled the tennis player from Germany all night. They tried to achieve German unification in bed.” Both still claim that the only thing that united them was sports.
German newspapers once reported that the ice princess had three affairs with different men within one week. “It’s strange,” the charming Katty remarked to this, “what did I do for the other four days?”
In the love sphere, everything happened to the incomparable and incomparable, including the harassment of the madly in love American Weltman, who, in the intervals between his stays in police stations and in the psychiatric hospital, annoyed the icy beauty. There was also great love - with actor Richard Dean Andersen. The lovers, busy with endless travel, met in different countries and different cities. Both were convinced that there could be no better personal relationship between a man and a woman in life than theirs, and they made plans for the future. “But little by little doubts crept in,” Katarina returns to these dramatic years for her, “there was your life, your success, you did everything for yourself, as you wanted and could. You got used to independence and independence, to manifestations of spontaneous nature - and suddenly at every step I have to think whether it will be good for the other and whether you can do it? On the streets he was surrounded by fans, but I remained on the sidelines. In sports palaces, the worship immediately switched to me, and Richard felt unnecessary. Our glory and fame each had a dark side."
One day at six in the morning, while he was still sleeping, Katarina packed her suitcase. Richard suddenly woke up and asked in complete confusion: “Can you just leave?” She replied: “It’s all over.” “I should,” Witt later recalled, “tell him a lot, but, alas, deep, sincere and sincere conversations have not yet become part of our communication.” They broke up. Richard called soon after. “I thought,” says Katti, “that he would passionately convince and persuade me, but his voice sounded distant. This no longer saddened me, but infuriated me. Then I found out that he called from the plane, surrounded by strangers, inquisitive people. But it was already too late...
Either this affair left an unhealed wound, or there are other reasons, but she still hasn’t found her prince. And the private life of “former GDR citizen Katharina Witt” continues to excite the imagination of the average person. It is possible to look into the surviving Stasi archives if the “public interest” is pursued. One of the journalists looked in, bringing to light, in particular, the informers’ “observations” of the intimate life of the great athlete. She immediately filed a lawsuit. And now a decision has just been made: everything related to private life is not subject to disclosure, but the rest, which mainly includes the relationship of the famous athlete with the Ministry of State Security of the GDR, can be found out.
From now on, an opaque curtain will be drawn before love gossip and denunciations, the rest will be on an open stage, although sometimes it is difficult to separate the personal from the “public.” Before the unification of Germany, Katharina Witt was called in the West “the most beautiful face of socialism.” As soon as the Berlin Wall fell, many publications began to call it either the “red goat” or “Honecker’s spoiled child”, or even completely label it with obscenely offensive labels.
She could have fled to the West at any moment, as many citizens of socialist Germany dreamed of, but she did not run away. “It would be absolutely dishonest,” she says with conviction, “in relation to my fellow citizens, who, in fact, paid for my sports activities and successes on the ice rinks.”
After pioneering, she was supposed to join the Komsomol, and at the age of 18 - the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Members of the party were her father, whom she treats with sincere love, and her “sports mother,” the famous coach Jutta Müller. The ice queen enjoyed not only royal glory, but also benefits that ordinary citizens of socialist Germany did not know.
This is evidenced by documents from the Stasi archives, which the court now allowed to be used. She was guaranteed to receive Western fees (though not all of them); it became known, in particular, about the transfer of 372 thousand Western marks to the name of Katharina Witt to Handelsbank. The archive also contains a receipt from the athlete who received a Volkswagen Golf from the MGB. One of the papers reports that the Stasi gave her an apartment, a Lada-2107 car, and her parents a Wartburg, for which an ordinary person in the GDR could stand in line for ten years.
When these messages appeared in the press, Katharina Witt said: “I thanked for these gifts, because I imagined what an advertising role I played for the republic in those years. Besides, I’m just being polite.” The agent, who was talking about handing over the keys to the car and apartment, commented on the old conversation in a different way in a note to MGB chief Erich Mielke: “Katarina Witt sees in the Ministry of State Security a partner whom she trusts with all problems and concerns, including her attitude towards men”...
Time has shown that the incomparable and incomparable figure skater copes perfectly with all the problems and concerns: she still trains every day for three to four hours, organizes ice shows, is engaged in “related” businesses, helps children’s figure skating in the former GDR, appears on television and he even shoots for Playboy, since he still has something to show on the pages of the men's magazine. Katarina herself fights off the paparazzi, one of whom once climbed on a crane to the window of her apartment on the eighth floor and, taken by surprise, said almost as an anecdote: “I came to inspect the house on behalf of the city authorities.” The “caretaker” received a royal assault and fell somersault down the stairs from the eighth floor. It was worse for the two robbers, who had already collected the jewelry of Katarina, who unexpectedly returned home. She grabbed a kitchen knife and rushed at them, the criminals running empty-handed straight into the arms of the police patrol.
Yes, in Witt’s life there were not very royal incidents, but she is not the pampered palace “Her Majesty”, but a great worker of the sports fields, which she came to as a five-year-old child. Within a few years, she had to spend seven to eight hours on the ice every day. “I literally fell into bed dead,” recalls Katty. “But a real athlete must rise above the limits of his capabilities.” She rose - both in sports and in business life. It will rise, perhaps, in love.
Witt Katharina
(born 1965)
German figure skater. Two-time Olympic champion in women's singles skating (1984, 1988). World champion (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988). European champion (1983–1987, 1989). World champion among professionals (1992).
The “Queen of Figure Skating”, a figure skater who had no equal in the 80s, one of the most titled athletes in the world is her, Katarina Witt.
“The face of German socialism”, “the red champion”, “Erich Honecker’s favorite toy” and allegedly an agent of the East German secret service “Stasi” - this is also her, Katharina Witt.
Winner of the prestigious Emmy television award, actress who played in several films with Robert De Niro and Tom Cruise, television and radio commentator - that’s her, Katharina Witt.
A successful businesswoman who, among other things, owns a villa in Los Angeles and a four-story house in the center of Berlin, is also her, Katharina Witt.
The Playboy magazine model, who at the age of 32 was not afraid to put her magnificent body on public display, is all about her, Katharina Witt.
In general, as the hero of the popular Soviet comedy said, “an athlete, a Komsomol member and just a beauty” - that’s her, Katarina Witt...
Katharina Witt was born on December 3, 1965 in the small East German town of Staaken. Her father, Manfred Witt, was the director of an agricultural machinery factory, and her mother Kat was a sports doctor. Every day, mother took little Katarina to kindergarten and every day they passed by the skating rink called “Kuchwald”. The girl really wanted to skate, and she constantly asked her mother to take her to the skating rink. At the age of five, Katharina’s dream came true - she entered the sports school in Karl-Marx-Stadt.
Four years later, the fate of Katharina Witt was decided - the famous Jutta Müller took her under her wing. The famous coach saw the performance of nine-year-old Katarina and, with an experienced eye, immediately identified her enormous potential. And Jutta Müller knew how to make champions - it was she who raised Anita Pötsch, the champion of the 1980 Games in Lake Placid (by the way, Anita Pötsch was the wife of Axel Witt, Katharina’s older brother).
Of course, Jutta Müller is a brilliant coach, but this does not mean that Katharina Witt immediately started winning all the competitions in a row. The young figure skater's first successes were very modest - places in the second ten at the World and European Junior Championships, and third or fourth at the Olympics and championships of the GDR. Katharina's first significant achievement was tenth place at the World Championships in 1979. A year later, she took first place at the GDR championship (in total, during her career she won the title of best figure skater in her country eight times), and two years later she won silver at the European Championship.
Since 1983, the “era of Katarina Witt” began in women's figure skating. The German figure skater won gold at the European Championships, then the World Championships and finally took first place at the XIV Olympic Games in 1984. In Sarajevo, Katarina had no equal - she was first in both the short and free programs. The technically flawless, yet artistic performance of the graceful and slightly flirtatious Katarina left neither the audience nor the judges indifferent. The judges unconditionally put her in first place, leaving far behind the American Rosalyn Sumners and the Soviet athlete Kira Ivanova, who won silver and bronze medals, respectively.
After her first successes, Katarina was offered to move to the West, but she did not agree. And now, living for six months in the USA and earning decent money, Katharina Witt says that it was the East German regime that created all the conditions for her to win: “I owe all my success to my homeland - the GDR. I always believed that escaping to the West would be dishonest to my compatriots, who, in fact, paid for my training and travel to competitions.” Of course, her life in the GDR was different from the life of ordinary East Germans. She received a significant portion of her fees for performances (while the vast majority of her colleagues received mere pennies), she was given free apartments and collections of the most fashionable clothes. A special topic is her cars. Once upon a time, the GDR produced the Trabant, a car that was defective even by Soviet standards: a small, cramped fiberglass body, a weak engine that rumbled and spewed oil - in general, not a car, but, as they say, “a bucket of bolts.” So, in order to be able to buy this “miracle of technology,” residents of the GDR had to wait for their turn for decades. Naturally, the dark blue Lada and then the red Volkswagen Golf, which Katharina Witt drove, looked “defiant luxury” against this background. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, the figure skater was reproached more than once for these cars, somehow without thinking much that in our time, with the fee from performing at one commercial tournament, leading skaters can buy about twenty Ladas and five or six Volkswagens. .
Nowadays in print and electronic media you can often see different popularity ratings of famous people. The GDR also had its own “rating,” although it was somewhat peculiar - the more popular a person was, the more closely the East German Ministry of State Security, the notorious Stasi service, was interested in his life. According to various sources, the dossier on Katarina Witt contains from 1348 to 3500 pages, which is not surprising, because intelligence began monitoring the skater when she was... nine years old. After Katarina began to travel abroad, the surveillance did not stop for a minute. With German pedantry, intelligence recorded all the details, right down to the most intimate moments of the famous figure skater’s life. They followed not only Katarina herself, but also her relatives, using every opportunity for this. For example, one of the Stasi employees was introduced into the football team where Katarina’s brother played, another did renovations in the apartment of the figure skater’s parents, etc. Obviously, since then Katarina really doesn’t like it when someone interferes in things without permission. her life - one of the journalists was convinced of this from his own bitter experience, who, under the guise of an employee of the Berlin municipality, came to her house. When the deception was revealed, Katarina, without further ado, threw the hapless reporter out into the street, leaving several impressive bruises on his face.
For the opportunity to train normally, travel abroad and receive material benefits inaccessible to mere mortals, Katharina Witt had to pay with loyalty to the communist regime. In the early 1990s, excerpts from Witt's dossier were leaked to the German press. In particular, a report from one of the intelligence officers to the top leadership of the GDR was published: “We told her that she can be absolutely sure that she is guaranteed assistance from the Ministry of Security at any time. Katharina Witt gladly took note of this and at the end of the conversation said that she owes everything she has to our party and state. She promised never to disappoint the GDR and the party leadership and vowed that she would not flee to the West.” Katarina Witt herself never hid the fact that she collaborated with intelligence. Another thing is that she categorically denies that she followed her teammates and coaches, helping the Stasi stop attempts to escape to the West: “I never worked for the Stasi, and everything I told them concerned only me and no one else.” more".
As for the sporting achievements of Katarina Witt, from 1983 to 1988 she won almost all competitions that were held in amateur figure skating. During this period, she stumbled only once, in 1986, losing the world championship to American Debi Thomas. It was Dabi who was Katharina Witt's main competitor at the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary. By chance or not, both figure skaters chose Bizet’s music from the opera “Carmen” for their free program. The referees had to decide which Carmen was better - German or American, naturally, taking into account both the technique of performing the number and artistry. Katarina was, as always, inimitable - her performance received a thunderous ovation. However, in terms of technical complexity, her program was inferior to that of the American figure skater. Debi Thomas, who competed later than her opponent, had the only chance to get a gold medal - she had to skate her routine cleanly and perform five flawless triple jumps. The American almost completed the task, but a small mistake at the very beginning of her performance cost her the championship title. Debi Thomas took silver. Thus, Katharina Witt became the second athlete, after the legendary Sonya Henie, who managed to win the Olympics twice in a row.
Katharina Witt remained faithful to the end to the now defunct country called the “German Democratic Republic”. Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany did Katarina switch to professional figure skating. She signed a contract with the American troupe Holiday on Ice, where her partners were the famous figure skaters Brian Orser and Brian Boitano. “Unsurpassed and incomparable” Katharina Witt immediately captivated the American public, satiated with various spectacles. Ice shows with her participation always attracted full stadiums. In 1990, Katarina received the prestigious television Emmy Award for her starring role in the film Carmen on Ice, and in 1995 she was awarded the highest American award for professional athletes, the Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Award. (This award was established in honor of American Indian track and field athlete Jim Thorpe, the 1912 Stockholm Olympic champion in the pentathlon and decathlon, who, in addition to athletics, competed in baseball, American football, basketball, swimming, boxing, hockey and shooting from onions.)
After the IOC allowed professional athletes to take part in the Olympics, Katharina Witt tried to win Olympic gold for the third time, performing in 1994 at the Games in Lillehammer, Norway, but the German “queen of ice” failed to repeat the achievement of three-time Olympic champion Sonja Henie. Nevertheless, Katarina was not left without a reward - she was awarded the special prize “Golden Camera”.
Obviously, Katharina Witt belongs to the number of people for whom a state of rest is absolutely impossible. Back in 1987, when her figure skating career was in full swing, she entered an acting school, one of the best in the GDR. In feature films, her roles in the films “Jerry McGuire” and “Ronin” did not go unnoticed.
And in 1998, Katarina posed completely naked for Playboy magazine. Of course, adherents of strict morality did not approve of the action of the German champion, but most fans were only glad to see her in such a so-called “absolutely natural” form, it is not for nothing that that issue of “Playboy” is now a kind of bibliographic rarity.
Now Katharina Witt continues to stage her own ice performances, and also works as a commentator for German and American television companies. The “Queen of Figure Skating” is still on the ice, and she will soon turn forty years old (although it is considered bad manners to talk about a woman’s age, this does not apply to Katharina Witt - she is just as magnificent as she was twenty years ago). Even after the Olympic Sarajevo, she was asked: “How long are you going to skate?” To this Katarina invariably replies: “I never think about it. I will go on the ice and delight the audience as long as I can do it..."
This text is an introductory fragment. From the book Lisbon. Guide by Bergmann JurgenMiradouro Santa Catarina In the area around the Miradouro Santa Catarina viewpoint (46) there are also good old houses. From the platform, decorated with a statue of the giant Adamastor, a character in Camões' poem "The Lusiads", a wonderful *view of the bridge opens
From the book All the masterpieces of world literature in brief. Plots and characters. Foreign literature of the 20th century. Book 1 author Novikov V.I.Katharine Susannah Prichard The Roaring Nineties Novel (1946) The novel “The Nineties” is the first part of the famous trilogy, which also includes the novels “Golden Miles” (1948) and “Winged Seeds” (1950). The trilogy covers sixty years of Australian history,
TSBWitt Alexander Adolfovich Witt Alexander Adolfovich (1902-1937), Soviet physicist, one of the founders of the school of specialists in the field of nonlinear theory of oscillations. Graduated from Moscow State University in 1924. Professor at Moscow State University. Together with A. A. Andronov, V. created a rigorous mathematical theory
From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (VI) by the author TSBWitt Otto Nikolaus Witt (Witt) Otto Nikolaus (31.3.1853, St. Petersburg - 23.3.1915, Charlottenburg, near Berlin), German organic chemist. The son of the Russified German I. N. Witt, a chemistry teacher at the St. Petersburg Practical Technological Institute. In 1875 he graduated from Zurich
From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (VI) by the author TSBWitt Jan de Witt Jan de (24.9.1625, Dordrecht, - 20.8.1672, The Hague), Dutch statesman, de facto ruler of the Republic of the United Provinces (the Netherlands) in 1650-72 (from 1653 - grand pensioner of the province of Holland). Expressing the will of the Dutch merchant oligarchy,
From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (SA) by the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (PR) by the author TSB From the book Big Dictionary of Quotes and Catchphrases authorGABRIELLI, Catarina (Gabrielli, Catarina, 1730–1796), Italian opera singer; in 1768–1777 sang in St. Petersburg 3 Let your field marshals sing to you. An apocryphal response to Catherine II’s remark that her field marshals receive less than Gabrielli asks for their performances.
From the book World History in sayings and quotes author Dushenko Konstantin VasilievichGABRIELLI, Catarina (Gabrielli, Catarina, 1730–1796), Italian opera singer; in 1768–1777. sang in St. Petersburg1 Let your field marshals sing to you. An apocryphal response to Catherine II’s remark that her field marshals receive less than Gabrielli asks for their performances. Given
From the book Brazil author Maria SigalovaState of Santa Catarina In the south of Brazil, the best beaches are rightfully considered to be the beaches of the state of Santa Catarina, the total length of which reaches almost 500 km. There is an amazing ocean, clear water and clean sand. The city became a kind of dividing border of the coast
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Over the past 30 years, seven figure skaters have become Olympic champions in women's single skating - from the German Katharina Witt to the Korean Yuna Kim. Favorites of millions, sex symbols and teenage girls: what happened to the Olympic champions after their finest hour?
Our story would be incomplete without mentioning the figure skaters who never won gold, but left a bright and long mark in the history of figure skating.
Photo: AP/Scanpix
Katarina Witt dominated women's figure skating in the 1980s. The future figure skating star was born in 1965 near Berlin, represented the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and won two Olympic gold medals - in 1984 in Sarajevo and in 1988 in Calgary. From 1983 to 1988 she was consistently European champion and also won four gold medals at the world championships.
In 1988, Witt gave up her sports career and signed a contract with the American ice ballet Holiday on Ice. In the GDR, her participation in the American show became a sensation.
Katarina's success as a professional figure skater exceeded all expectations. After professionals were allowed to compete at the Olympics, she took part in her third Winter Olympics in 1994, where she took 7th place.
Photo: Reuters/Scanpix
The Ice Princess also replenished the state treasury of the GDR, donating 80 percent of her proceeds, and enjoyed the immense support of the then socialist leadership of the country, but after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Katharina Witt became the object of harsh criticism. If earlier the media called her nothing less than “the most beautiful face of socialism,” now the tabloid press nicknamed the skater “the goat of the SED,” hinting at her connections with the state security service of the GDR.
In 1998, Witt posed nude for Playboy. This issue became one of the most successful in the history of the men's magazine. Only twice did its circulation sell out completely, down to a single copy: when there was a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on the cover and when photographs of Katharina Witt were published in the magazine.
Witt also starred in films and television films, playing either herself or athletes with a similar fate, became the host of several popular television shows, and developed a series of jewelry named after the champion.
In 1998, in the film "Ronin" she starred in a cameo role as Russian figure skater Natasha Kirillova. And in 2012, Witt played the main role in the television film “The Enemy of My Life.” According to the scenario, a famous figure skater is preparing for a show, and at the same time she is being pursued by an anonymous person whom the police cannot identify. According to Witt, when he performed in the USA, she herself found herself in a similar situation.
In 2005, the figure skater created the Katarina Witt Stiftung charity foundation. In 2008, Witt decided to finally say goodbye to ice. Today, 49-year-old Katarina is a television commentator and businesswoman.
There have always been a lot of rumors about Katharina Witt's personal life. She was even credited with an affair with Erich Honecker, the state leader of the GDR. She has never been married and has no children. Among the "official" boyfriends were German musicians Ingo Politz and Rolf Brandel, as well as American actors Richard Dean Anderson and Danny Huston.
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Kristi Yamaguchi is an American figure skater who won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville. She is a two-time world champion (1991, 1992). In 2005, Yamaguchi was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame.
Christy was born in 1971 in Hayward, California, a fourth-generation representative of the Japanese diaspora in America. Her paternal grandparents and maternal great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Japan. Yamaguchi's grandparents were in an internment camp during World War II, where her mother was born. Kristi Yamaguchi began riding as a child as therapy for her clubfoot.
In juniors, Yamaguchi performed not only in singles, but also in pairs skating with Rudy Galindo. In 1988 she became the world champion among juniors in both singles and pairs skating. Yamaguchi is the first woman to win first place at the US Championships in singles and pairs. As a couple, Christy and Rudy were unusual in that they both competed in singles, and also jumped and spun in different directions: Yamaguchi counter-clockwise and Galindo clockwise.
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In 1996, Yamaguchi founded the Always Dream Foundation for children. In addition, the ex-skater wrote three books, including “Figure Skating for Dummies,” and starred in three films as herself.
In 2008, Kristi Yamaguchi won the ABC television competition "Dancing with the Stars", becoming the second woman in the history of the competition to win it. And before that, together with the Disson company, she was the organizer of the ice show “Kristi Yamaguchi Show”.
Since 2000, Christie has been married to NHL player Bret Hediken. They have two daughters - Keara Kiemi (born 2003) and Emma Yoshiko (born 2005).
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One of the most famous sports dramas played out between two American figure skaters - Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, who competed with each other for a place in the US team before the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer.
The widely reported attack on Kerrigan took place during training before competing at the US Championships in Detroit on January 6, 1994. Shane Stant, instigated by Jeff Gillooly (Tony Harding's ex-husband) and his friend Shawn Eckardt, was supposed to break Nancy's right leg so that she would not be able to compete.
Stant was unable to find Kerrigan at a skating rink in Massachusetts, so he followed her to Detroit, where he struck her in the thigh several inches above the knee with a police baton. He only bruised Nancy’s leg, not broke it, but this injury forced the athlete to refuse to participate in the national championship.
Holding her knee and wailing “Why, why, why,” Nancy was caught on camera. The video remained top news on all television channels for several days after the attack.
Harding won the US Championships and both of them, along with Kerrigan, made the Olympic team: the American Figure Skating Federation decided to include Nancy on the team instead of second place Michelle Kwan.
After Tonya admitted that she knew about the impending attack, the US Figure Skating Association and the US National Olympic Committee initiated proceedings to remove Harding from the team, but she retained her place by threatening to start a lawsuit.
Kerrigan recovered quickly and began intense training. The news that Nancy was back to normal after the attack and ready to continue her professional career led to her signing a new $9.5 million contract before the Olympics even began.
The attack on Kerrigan and news of Harding's alleged involvement caused a media storm. Hundreds of members of the press stampeded on the training rink in Norway, and the broadcast of the short program at the 1994 Olympics became one of the most watched television broadcasts in American history.
In Lillehammer, Harding finished eighth, and Nancy Kerrigan, who had fully recovered from injury, won the silver medal. At the same time, at these games an incident occurred with Harding herself: the lace of her skate suddenly broke before going on the ice to perform a free program.
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Nancy Kerrigan (born 1969) is a two-time Olympic medalist (1992 bronze and 1994 silver), two-time world championship medalist (1991, 1992) and 1993 US champion.
After the 1994 Olympics, Kerrigan ended her amateur career and competed in several professional competitions, but soon decided to focus on various ice shows. She has performed in Champions on Ice, Broadway on Ice and the ice version of the musical Footloose.
Nancy played a small role in the film "Blades of Glory: Stars on Ice", took part in the television show "Skating with Celebrities", hosted the program Nancy Kerrigan's World of Skating, and was a commentator at the 2010 Olympics.
In 2003, Kerrigan became a representative of the Fight for Sight organization, and in 2004 she was inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame. She has written a textbook on modern figure skating techniques, "Artistry on Ice", and created The Nancy Kerrigan Foundation to raise awareness and support for the visually impaired.
In 1995, Nancy Kerrigan married her agent Jerry Lawrence Solomon, who is 16 years older than her. They have three children: Matthew Eric (born 1996), Brian (born 2005), and Nicole Elizabeth (born 2008). Nancy's father died in 2010 after a fight with his son: Nancy's brother was convicted of manslaughter.
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Tonya Maxine Harding (born 1970) won the 1991 US Championships and finished second at the World Championships. She was also fourth at the 92 Olympics and eighth at the 94 Olympics. Tonya became the second woman in history and the first American to land a triple Axel in competition, but is better known as the champion who injured her competitor's leg.
Tonya married Jeff Gillooly in 1990 when she was 19 years old. Their stormy marriage ended in 1993. As mentioned above, Harding rose to fame after her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly conspired with Shawn Eckardt and Shane Stant to attack Nancy Kerrigan.
After it was recognized that Harding, along with her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, tried to cripple Kerrigan, Tonya was removed from participation in the national championship and was banned from amateur figure skating. And Jeff Gillooly was sentenced to two years in prison. The scandal in which the athlete was involved reached its peak when photographs from the couple's first wedding night were sold to Penthouse magazine.
Tonya Harding avoided jail after pleading guilty to conspiring with her attackers to prevent their prosecution. She received three years probation, 500 hours of community service and a fine of $160,000.
Harding was forced to leave the amateur ice, but among the pros she became “persona non grata.” She has long maintained her innocence in the attack and said she is disgusted by it. As a sign of this, she got a tattoo of an angel on her back.
In her 2008 autobiography, The Tony Papers, Harding claims she wanted to call the FBI and report everything, but changed her mind when Gillooly allegedly threatened to kill her after raping her at gunpoint.
Harding's name continued to make headlines, but now news of her domestic quarrels and car accidents appeared in the media. In 2002, a boxing match between Tonya Harding and Paula Jones was staged for television. Scandalist Paula Jones accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
In 2002, in the biography of Tonya Harding, she was imprisoned for 10 days for driving while intoxicated. In 2003, Tonya tried herself in professional boxing. In six fights, she won three times, but refused further fights due to asthma.
In 2004, she signed a contract for one game with the Indianapolis Ice of the Major Hockey League, and a few years later she decided to try herself in freestyle fighting, but also without much success. In 2010, she married Joseph Jens Price.
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Oksana Baiul is a Soviet and Ukrainian figure skater, born in 1977 in Dnepropetrovsk. Olympic champion-94, world champion-1993 and two-time champion of Ukraine (1993, 1994). The first and only Olympic champion in figure skating in the history of Ukraine.
Oksana's parents divorced in 1980, when she was 2 years old. After that, the daughter was raised by her mother, who died in 1991, when Oksana was 13 years old. Oksana became an orphan and was taken in by Galina Zmievskaya, a leading Odessa figure skating coach.
Baiul’s sports career is filled with funny and dramatic situations. At the 1994 Olympics, during training before the free program, figure skater Shevchenko from Germany collided with her, injuring her shin with a skate. Baiul was given stitches and given painkiller injections.
The Ukrainian, overcoming the pain, performed her free program. After grading her technique, Oksana had a nervous breakdown. With intense competition, the outcome of the competition was decided by one vote of the German judge, who placed Baiul second in the short program, and changed his mind in the free program and gave her first place. 16-year-old Baiul became the only Ukrainian Olympic champion in Lillehammer.
Photo: AP/Scanpix
After the 1994 Games, Baiul moved to live in the United States, while maintaining Ukrainian citizenship, and competed professionally. She had an accident, suffered from alcoholism, and went through rehabilitation. Now she continues to perform and is engaged in business, and has published two books in English.
She left the ice in 2001, but returned to professional sports in 2005. In 2010, she returned to Ukraine and entered the Drahomanov National Pedagogical University in Kyiv.
Oksana was Orthodox until she discovered her Jewish roots through her mother in 2003. “Being Jewish is very cool. It’s so natural, like a second skin,” Baiul once said. Engaged to a Jewish man, she said she was thrilled to discover that she and her betrothed shared the same faith.
In February 2013, 36-year-old Baiul sued American broadcaster NBC Universal and its associated production company, demanding $5 million in damages to her reputation.
In the fall of 2013, the ex-skater sued the William Morris agency, which previously handled her affairs, in New York state court, demanding more than $400 million in compensation for the damage allegedly caused to her. The suit says the agency used her youth and poor English skills to defraud her of millions of dollars after winning the 1994 Olympics.
Photo: Vida Press
American Tara Lipinski (born 1982) - champion of the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, world champion 1997, US champion 1997. The youngest champion of the Winter Olympic Games in history in the individual discipline: she won gold at the age of 15 years. In 2006, Tara was inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
In figure skating, victories for teenagers will not surprise anyone. However, compared to her competitors, Lipinski still looked like a child. She lacked artistry, but she managed the most difficult jumps. Already at the age of 12, Tara won the American Olympic Festival, at 13 she made her debut at the World Championships, and at the age of 14 she became the world champion. There has never been, nor will there ever be, such a young champion in figure skating, since the International Skating Union has since introduced age restrictions.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Scanpix
A couple of years after Nagano, Tara won the world championship among professionals, but then a hip injury began to make itself felt. At the age of 19, after a fall during the Stars on Ice show in St. Louis, another relapse occurred, and Lipinski decided to leave the big sport.
But she did not sit idly by, but chose an acting profession, focusing on American television shows. Interestingly, in twenty of them she played herself.
The aspiring actress successfully worked in the drama series Touched by an Angel, appeared in episodes of the series Arliss, Morning Edition, and 7th Heaven, participated in the family comedy series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and had episodic roles in the films Screech. Well, a very scary movie,” “Veronica’s Salon,” “The Young and the Restless.”
Also in Tara Lipinski's track record are the series "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" and "Malcolm in the Middle", the films "Vanilla Sky" (2001), "Still Standing" (2001), "Subway Chase" (2003).
Tara Lipinski's film career remained in supporting roles, although there were also leading roles. For example, in 2000, in the comedy drama directed by George Ershbeimer "The Ice Angel". And in 2002, Tara Lipinski took part in the dubbing of the animated film “Scooby-Doo.”
At the same time, Lipinski does not consider himself a public person. As soon as the opportunity arises, she happily becomes a snail and “hides” in her house.
Now 32-year-old Tara is engaged in charity work and helping children. Last year, she distributed titles at the Miss Universe 2013 beauty pageant. And in October 2013, she became an analytical observer for the American television company NBC and will now attend the Olympics in Sochi.
Photo: AFP/Scanpix
American Sarah Hughes (born 1985) is the 2002 Olympic champion and bronze medalist at the 2001 World Figure Skating Championships. In 2005 she was included in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Sarah surprised the whole world when she won gold at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. She was only 16 years old then. In addition, the athlete had never won the US or World Championships before. In fourth place after the short program, Sarah delivered a flawless long performance. In this way, she beat out such star figure skaters as world champion Michelle Kwan, Russian Irina Slutskaya, and young American Sasha Cohen.
Photo: Vida Press
Photo: RIA Novosti/Scanpix
Japanese Shizuka Arakawa (born 1981) is the 2006 Olympic champion in Turin and the 2004 world champion. Shizuka became the first Japanese figure skater to win an Olympic competition and the second Japanese figure skater to win gold in any sport at the Winter Olympics. Her medal was the only one in the collection of the Japanese team at the 2006 Olympics.
In 2004, a Japanese figure skater who worked with Russian coach Tatyana Tarasova won the world championship. And two years later in Turin, Arakawa skated her free program flawlessly, managing to get ahead of the American Sasha Cohen and the Russian Irina Slutskaya.
Photo: AFP/Scanpix
After winning the Olympic Games in 2006, Shizuka Arakawa ended her amateur career. Later, the ex-skater performed in ice shows and demonstration performances, taught choreography, and also worked as a sports commentator on Japanese television.
And in 2013, at a wedding fashion exhibition in Tokyo, 32-year-old Arakawa appeared as a model to demonstrate an wedding dress from Japanese designer Ginza Tanaka. The dress, decorated with 502 diamonds and a thousand pearls, costs $8.3 million: it is the most expensive wedding dress in the world.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Scanpix
In November 2006, she announced the end of her sports career. In 2000, she received a diploma from the Academy of Physical Culture in Moscow, but did not try herself as a coach. In 2006, Slutskaya graduated from television presenter courses.
In 2006, Slutskaya was the TV presenter of the projects “Stars on Ice” and “Ice Age”. In 2008, she took part in the same project as a participant, partnering with ballet choreographer Gedeminas Taranda. In 2009, she returned to the role of host of the show, together with Anastasia Zavorotnyuk.
She starred in one of the roles in the series about figure skating "Hot Ice", and acted as the main skater in the Russian version of the show "Winx on Ice". In 2011, Slutskaya was awarded the status of Ambassador of the XXII Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Since October 2011, he has been presenting sports news on Channel One.
In 2012 she was the host of the show “Ice Age. Professional Cup”, and in 2014 she appeared in it as a participant. According to her, “as a presenter, I already feel like a professional to some extent, but as a participant it’s incredibly interesting to discover some new possibilities in myself, to create new images.”
In 1999, Irina married Sergei Mikheev. In 2007 she gave birth to a son, Artem, and in 2010, a daughter, Varvara.
Photo: AP/Scanpix
American figure skater Michelle Kwan, like Russian Slutskaya, failed to become an Olympic champion, but for many years she was also a trendsetter in figure skating.
Michelle Wingshan Kwan (born 1980) - two-time Olympic medalist (silver in Nagano 1998 and bronze in Salt Lake City 2002), five-time world champion (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003) (second only to Sonya Henie's record) and nine-time US champion (1996, 1998-2005) (absolute record, same as Maribel Vinson-Owen). Michelle Kwan's eight consecutive national titles and 12 consecutive national championship medals are U.S. records.
California-born Michelle is a descendant of Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong. As a child, she spoke a mixture of Cantonese and English at home, and also speaks some colloquial Mandarin.
Michelle Kwan competed at the highest level for a decade and is the most decorated figure skater in American history. Known for her tenacity and expressive artistry on the ice, she is considered by many to be one of the greatest figure skaters of all time.
For over a decade, Michelle Kwan maintained her position as not only the most popular figure skater in America, but also the most popular American female athlete.
Kwan is a recipient of the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award, which is given to the top amateur athlete in the United States. She was the first figure skater to receive this award since Dick Button, who was awarded in 1949.
Photo: Reuters/Scanpix
Katarina Witt, born in 1965, six-time European champion, four-time world champion, two-time Olympic champion in figure skating: in Sarajevo (1984) and Calgary (1988). She was one of the most famous athletes of the GDR and is known throughout the world as one of the most successful figure skaters. In 1994, as part of the general German team, she took part in another Olympics, in Lillehammer. Today, in addition to other activities, she is also an entrepreneur.
Der Spiegel Online: Mrs. Witt, you are almost 50 years old, the first half of which you lived in the GDR, and the second in the Federal Republic. What time was most memorable for you?
Witt: Well, the time of childhood, youth, it is more memorable, I think. It’s like music, a song with which you experienced your first love, your first heartache, your first “fly away”, it will forever remain in your head with such an emotional connection.
Der Spiegel Online: What about these memorable moments from your childhood?
Witt: First, of course, my carefree childhood in the family, and then sports: discipline, submission for the sake of everything. And despite the “corset,” it was in the GDR that one could obtain a degree of freedom that was by no means taken for granted.
Der Spiegel Online: Which you received as a sports star.
Witt: Of course, it was a big advantage for me to be able to travel while I was still young. It was truly a privilege. Although, of course, there were no vacation trips. Everything was linked to sports, competitions here, performances there. That is, no lying with your stomach up under the sun. But it was a tremendous chance to discover the unknown with surprise and see something.
Der Spiegel Online: Ice stadiums in the world?
Witt: Theirs, of course, but there was something else along the way to them. You just had to keep your eyes open when you were riding the bus around the city. Besides, Mrs. Müller...
Der Spiegel Online: ...Your coach...
Witt: ... always paid attention to this, I am very grateful to her for that. Her attitude was: “Baby, who knows if you will ever be able to visit Paris again, so we are now going to the Eiffel Tower.” This advanced me very much, that I could travel, and thanks to this I matured as a person. I learned to be open to new impressions, not to say, unlike others: “either my way or not at all.”
Der Spiegel Online: If people asked you abroad at that time where you were from, did they answer: “I’m German” or “I’m from the GDR”?
Witt: For me these concepts were absolutely separate, the answer was always: “I am from the GDR.”
SPIEGEL Online: So you first of all felt like a citizen of the GDR?
Witt: Yes, definitely. I was born in a country where they spoke the same language as West Germany, but I always saw my country as separate and independent. I have never doubted this. And if today, depending on one’s desire, this can be considered as a forced or logical step, that the unification of the Germans took place, then I simply could not imagine this. In any case, I could not do this as a very young man at that time.
SPIEGEL Online: Your sporting successes were used for political purposes; as a sports star you were the ambassador of the GDR and, as has always been said, “the most beautiful face of socialism.”
Witt: However, this expression was coined by an American journalist, a Time Store reporter, who logically wrote before the 1988 Olympic Games: “If Katie Witt represents the real face of socialism, America would willingly become socialist.” Of course, I was perceived as a representative of the GDR. And at the same time as a kind of counter-project.
Der Spiegel Online: What do you mean?
Witt: The image of the GDR was rather the following: gray, joyless, one size fits all. And then I appeared, let’s say, as something completely different. Because I have always been joyful, and my costumes are more colorful and extravagant than others. Show and glamor are also mandatory components of figure skating: even if everything hurts, you have to do it as if you had wings instead of bleeding legs.
Der Spiegel Online: In 1988, even before the reunion, you began your career as a professional athlete: ice shows, films, big tours in the United States. A big step forward, or?
Witt: Yes, it was a big change in life. Even if I could no longer be an athlete. Before this, newspapers wrote about me in sections about sports, many journalists accompanied me for years, admiringly empathizing with my ascent. And suddenly, literally in a day, I moved to the pages of the yellow press. It was no longer the triple jump that became interesting, but the made-up stories about me and Prince Albert, or Boris Becker.
Der Spiegel Online: And then it was time for the reunion...
Witt: ... and I found myself in a new situation. In America I received great recognition, incredible success from my tours. And at home a whole wave arose against me, partly with accusations, partly, oh, however, this is all in the past.
"Der Spiegel Online": "Der Spiegel" once wrote about the "witch hunt" announced against you: the once popular Kati has become, as the Bild newspaper put it, a system-loyal "goat from the Socialist Unity Party of Germany" (the ruling party in GDR - approx.)
Witt: It was hard then. It was a really strange contrast. In America, I became a symbol of freedom: “She has arrived from behind the Iron Curtain,” “She is free at last,” “She can do whatever she wants.” The Americans had a completely different idea of me. Of course, I played along with this, at the same time entering into discussions here, but without exposing the people who helped and supported me.
Der Spiegel Online: At that time, were you thinking about leaving Germany for a long time?
Witt: No, my connections with family and friends were too strong for this step. And at the same time, curiosity about what is happening now with our country, and some time passed before I was able to pronounce “our country.” In any case, I wanted to see the changes taking place, first of all, in Berlin. My apartment had a view of Potsdamer Platz and I wanted to empathize with the changes in my city.
SPIEGEL Online: At what point do you say “our country”?
Witt: It didn't happen soon after the reunion. The 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, where I went for the first time as part of a unified German team, were a good reason to start talking like that, but it took me a couple more years.
Der Spiegel Online: It turns out that it was good that you didn’t win another gold medal in 1994. Otherwise, you would have to sort out your relationship with the German anthem.
Witt: Ah, it was clear to me from the very beginning that my winnings would be another wonder of the world. But indeed, the situation would be peculiar. You can't honestly roar to two different anthems.
Der Spiegel Online: And today you talk about Germany as “our country”?
Witt: Of course. And in general I feel proud. I find that we can be happy with what our country stands for - freedom, democracy, a certain level of prosperity, as well as friendliness. We Germans could not always appreciate all this.
Der Spiegel Online: How well do you know Germany?
Witt: Oh my God, here again you are faced with how well what you once learned as a child has been imprinted. When I'm invited to a TV quiz show, I know something different about questions about geography, music or movies than guests who grew up in the West. However, my contribution to the history and culture of West Germany is also limited. I recently talked about federal lands, there are, it seems, 15 of them?
Der Spiegel online: 16.
Witt: Well, I got it. There were 15 districts in the GDR. You see how firmly what you learned in your youth stays in your head. Although something new comes into it every day. This shows how important education, sports and life-tested values remain.
Photo: imago/Hartenfelser
Katharina Witt in June in Frankfurt: today she is, among other things, an entrepreneur.
Photo: Imago
First success: Coach Jutta Müller congratulates 13-year-old Katharina Witt. The figure skater took third place in 1979, bringing the first medal to the GDR team.
Photo: Imago
Pirouettes for a photo shoot in 1982: Katharina Witt's career took off sharply, in the 80s she became a four-time world champion and a six-time European champion.
Photo: Imago
A huge triumph for an 18-year-old girl: at the 1984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Katarina Witt won the main title, only slightly beating American Rosalynn Sumners.
Photo: Imago
On a visit to the pioneer camp on Brandenburg's Lake Werbellin in the summer of 1984: the leadership of the GDR used the successes of Katharina Witt for political purposes, considering the figure skater as an advertisement for the country.
Photo: Imago
Hard ballet training: choreographer Rudi Suchy controls Katharina Witt's posture in December 1984.
Photo: Imago
Katharina Witt poses with plush toys in 1986. “The image of the GDR was rather grey, joyless, one size fits all. But I imagined, let’s say, something completely different from this,” she says today.
Photo: AP
Rejoicing with coach Jutta Müller over the gold at the 1987 World Championships in Cincinnati: “Of course, it was a big advantage for me that I could travel already in my youth,” says Katarina about those times.
Photo: AP
On August 25, 1987, Katharina Witt congratulates the Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, Erich Honecker, on his 75th birthday. The privileges were accompanied by supervision by state security agencies.
Photo: AP
Katharina Witt, member of the GDR Olympic team at the 1988 Calgary Games: in Canada she repeated her 1984 success.
Photo: Imago
Honoring the winner: with her free program to Georges Bizet’s music for the opera “Carmen,” Katharina Witt beat Canadian Elizabeth Manley (left) and American Debbie Thomas in the fight for gold. In the same year, even before the reunification of the two Germanys, she began her professional career - ice shows, films, large tours of the USA.
Photo: Getty Images
In 1994, after returning to amateur sports, Katharina Witt once again took part in the Olympic Games, this time in Lillehammer, as part of a single German team.
Photo: DPA
Over the roofs of Frankfurt am Main, late 90s: “I think we can be satisfied with what our country stands for - freedom, democracy, level of well-being, as well as friendliness,” says Katharina Witt about today's united Germany.
Photo: AP
In 1999, as a guest on the program “We Bet What?” Presenter Thomas Gottschalk flips through the Playboy issue dedicated to Katharina Witt with interest.
Photo: AP
The athlete regularly performed in her shows until 2008. Here she is pictured in Erfurt in 2002.
Photo: Getty Images
Katharina Witt in 2007, member Laureus World Sports Academy, at the awards ceremony in Barcelona. Over the years, she has also been involved as a presenter, actress and TV pundit.
Photo: DPA
Katharina Witt at the 2014 Sochi Olympics: The former figure skater also led Munich's bid to host the 2018 Olympics.
A month before the start of the Olympics in Sochi, we are publishing a series of articles dedicated to the legendary German champions. And our first heroine is a famous figure skater who competed for the GDR.
“Every day I trotted to the skating rink in the company of my girlfriends from kindergarten and knew: it was mine to skate and do jumps when others were looking at you. This is exactly what I want. And I know for sure that I can do it,” wrote Katarina Witt in her autobiography, “My Years Between Compulsory and Free Skates,” published in 1994.
Early success
Katharina Witt was born on December 3, 1965 near Berlin. She took her first steps in figure skating at the age of five at a sports school in the city of Karl-Marx-Stadt (present-day Chemnitz). There she was noticed by the famous trainer Jutta Müller. She quickly recognized the future champion in the little girl.
Witt achieved her first major success in 1983 at the European Championships in Dortmund, and a year later she became the champion of the Olympic Games in Sarajevo. We can safely say that in the 1980s, Katharina Witt had no equal in women's figure skating. From 1983 to 1988, she was a European champion, climbed to the top step of the podium at the world championships four times, and in 1988 in Calgary she became an Olympic champion for the second time.
Socialism or capitalism?
Along with fame, the athlete’s life included all the pompous attributes of “official” sport, which in the GDR was always inseparable from politics. Katharina Witt often had to be photographed with members of the Politburo, take part in congresses and other official ceremonies. She did this extremely reluctantly, since she already belonged to a new generation of East German youth - free and oriented towards democratic values.
After the Olympic Games in Calgary in 1988, it finally became clear that the “beautiful granddaughter of grandfather Marx” had turned into an all-German sports idol, who was equally worshiped in both the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. It destroyed the Berlin Wall that existed in the minds of West and East Germans.
Katharina Witt enjoyed the freedom of movement that came with her job. In November 1988, Witt decided to give up her sports career and broke one of the main taboos of “socialist sports” by signing a contract with the American ice ballet Holiday on Ice. Thus, she took another step in the direction of show business, from which after the fall of the Berlin Wall she would become inseparable. In the GDR, her participation in the American show became a sensation. Katarina's success as a professional figure skater exceeded all expectations.
After the Wall
Thanks to the changed rules, in 1994 she returned to the sport and took part in the Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer. And although there she failed to win the championship title for the third time (she took seventh place), Katarina’s fans were happy with her performance.
In 1998, Witt posed nude for Playboy. This issue became one of the most successful in the history of the men's magazine. Only twice did its circulation sell out completely, down to a single copy: when there was a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on the cover and when photographs of Katharina Witt were published in the magazine.
From “the most beautiful face of socialism” to the “goat of the SED”
For many years, the GDR basked in the glory and sporting success of the figure skater. And not only that: the ice princess also replenished the state treasury, donating 80 percent of her proceeds. At the same time, the favorite of functionaries enjoyed some privileges: the car and dishwasher given to her by the state became the reason for numerous reproaches brought against the skater by her compatriots after the peaceful revolution in the GDR. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Katharina Witt became the target of harsh criticism. If earlier the media called her nothing less than “the most beautiful face of socialism,” now the tabloid press nicknamed the figure skater “the goat of the SED.”
Since 1992, accusations have appeared in the press that the athlete worked for the state security services of the GDR. Witt is seeking a court order to stop a number of publishing houses from spreading such rumors. In 2001, she went to court in Berlin in an attempt to prevent the publication of a secret dossier kept on her by the East German secret police. Subsequently, the skater was forced to agree to this, but stated that such a publication was an invasion of her privacy.
Secret Stasi files filed against Katharina Witt indicate that she has been under continuous surveillance since 1973. Part of the dossier is now available to the public. The contents of these documents came as a shock to the athlete herself. “There are some things I would rather never know. I was not an informer, just as I was not a participant in the resistance movement,” Witt wrote in her autobiography.
Outside the rink
She starred in films and television films, playing either herself or athletes with a similar fate, became the host of several popular television shows, including an analogue of the Russian “Ice Age,” and developed a series of jewelry named after the champion. In 2005, the figure skater created the Katarina Witt Stiftung charity foundation. Its tasks include helping children living in regions affected by natural disasters, supporting disabled children and much more.
Katharina Witt actively lobbied for Munich to be the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics, officially representing the city at various events. But, as is now known, this enterprise was not successful. The Munich residents themselves opposed holding the Olympics in their city, and the competition will eventually be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
There have always been many rumors about Katharina Witt's personal life. She was even credited with an affair with Erich Honecker, the state leader of the GDR. She has never been married and has no children. Among the more or less “official” boyfriends were German musicians Ingo Politz and Rolf Brendel, as well as American actors Richard Dean Anderson and Danny Huston.
