LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Katarina Witt: Years
built 230 days ago
Although it's been eight years since Katarina Witt won her second Olympic Gold Medal, the figure skater is still wildly popular. Witt has the gift that so few have and so many desire- "star quality". On August 31, 1998, the American Opinion Research Institute released market research naming Witt and Michael Jordan as America's favorite sports heroes. For Witt, it's a pretty remarkable accomplishment, considering she is not even a United States citizen.
Source:
By the early 1980s, Katarina was clearly a champion on the way up. In 1982, she took home silver medals from both the European and World Figure Skating Championships. The next year, Katarina won the European Championship, and won it six consecutive times from 1983 through 1988. Meanwhile, she won the gold at the World Championship in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988. These achievements were capped with a gold medal at the 1984 Olympic games in Sarajevo and the 1988 Olympic games in Calgary. In half a dozen years, Katarina had racked up more titles than anyone before her.
Source:
Coached since teenage years by one and the same coach, Katarina clearly has learned a lot from her mentor, Frau Müller. Equally clearly, Frau Müller must have done a lot of things right to be able to ‘produce’ a champion like Katarina. But do young athletes really need to hear that “In sports, maybe 80 percent of your effort is your own free will, and the other 20 percent is pain. Torture. You need someone cracking the whip at you to reach your potential.” (p. 27)?
Source:
For the next several years, Witt simply dominated, winning world championships in 1985, 1987, and 1988. Only skating legend Sonja Henie (10), Carol Heiss (5), Herma Planck-Szabo (5), and Michelle Kwan (5) have won more. The combination of Witt's success on the ice and stunning good looks made her one of the most popular champions in the history of the sport.
Source:
The 1990s saw Katarina take off in new directions -- though she never left skating behind. Katarina worked as a commentator for German television coverage of skating championships and for CBS' coverage of the 1992 Albertville Olympics. Katarina competed in the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, finishing in 7th place. In 1995, Katarina became the first German to win the Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Award, and, over the next few years, toured as part of the Stars on Ice show and took part in international professional competitions.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Years