The price of freedom for the most beautiful and successful figure skater of the 1980s, Katharina Witt, who turned down Trump

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

She had not only outstanding athletic performance, but was also very beautiful. Many of Katarina Witt's rivals accused her of deliberately using overly open outfits in competitions. By the way, it was because of her that at one time the International Skating Union adopted the regulations on the costumes of figure skaters. She had the courage to refuse Donald Trump, dream for Playboy and skate in ice shows in the United States. But what price did she have to pay for the right to live by her own rules?

Through humiliation to the title

In 1970, five-year-old Katharina Witt skated for the first time in Karl-Marx-Stadt, among hundreds of other children selected under a government program to raise a new generation of champions. Five years later, out of this hundred, only five remained in figure skating, and a year later the talented young athlete moved to the group of the famous coach Jutta Miller. She was famous not only for raising real champions, but also for very tough methods of education.

Katarina was very capable, but at the same time she was distinguished by a rather strong physique, for which she was repeatedly subjected to very impartial epithets addressed to her. Jutta Müller was not shy in expressions, and Katarina endured, gritting her teeth, and insults, and constant hunger, and even slaps in the face. She went to her goal, so she strictly adhered to the diet set by the trainer: a piece of bread in the morning, rice and an apple for lunch, and only water for dinner.

Training took seven hours a day, and practicing one jump could be repeated ten thousand times. But already at the age of 14, Katarina Witt took third place in the GDR championship, and just a year later she climbed to the second step of the podium at the national championship and went to the world championship for the first time. At the age of 16, she was already the champion of the country and took fifth place in the world championship.

For six years, starting in 1982, she occupied, in general, first places in championships of various levels, with the exception of only silver at the World Championships in 1982 and 1986, and one silver at the European Championships in 1982. She twice became Olympic champion, four times - the world champion, six times brought "gold" from the European Championship.

True, all Katharina Witt's monetary awards went to the account of the GDR Figure Skating Federation, but she became the owner of her own apartment in her homeland and received the unofficial title of "the most beautiful face of socialism." She chose very revealing outfits for her performances, could appear on ice in a feather design instead of a skirt, or flaunt a deep neckline extending far below the waistline. And, although the skater herself said that she was not aware of her sexuality, in fact, she most likely skillfully used it. After another appearance of Witt in a very open dress, the development of changes to the schedule of skaters' performances began.

She had little recognition at home and just champion titles. The talented and freedom-loving Katharina Witt saw during the competition how athletes from capitalist countries live and dreamed of breaking free.

A new level

In 1989, the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Katharina Witt was able to go on the professional ice in the USA. Previously, she simply could not leave, since the GDR government would cut off her path to return and could make her relatives who remained in the country suffer. At the time of her departure to the United States, she was popular not only in the GDR, but also in the Federal Republic of Germany. And after just a year, the entire united Germany turned away from her. Information appeared in the press about the cooperation of Katharina Witt with the Stasi, the Ministry of Security of the GDR. She denied the existence of an agreement, but in the chorus of accusers her voice was simply lost, and the athlete herself became an outcast in her homeland.

At the same time, the journalists, who promised to provide evidence of the athlete's receipt of money from the Stasi, did not publish anything, and after a very short time, a dossier on Katarina herself surfaced. From it it was clear that the agents followed the skater relentlessly, watching her day and night. They even recorded her intimate life, highlighting in the diary of surveillance from what and at what time her intimate intimacy took place.

In Germany, she was able to become a national heroine again only at the beginning of the 21st century, but in the USA she had a resounding success. Ice shows with her participation gathered millions of viewers, and very decent sums were constantly falling at the expense of Katharina Witt. She starred in commercials, participated in numerous television programs and talk shows, was a welcome guest at the most representative events.

Donald Trump, who once saw the performance of a skater, immediately approached and left her his phone number. Before that, by the way, there was not a single woman who would not call back a successful and influential businessman. But Katharina Witt was not interested in others, she was not going to call anyone. The surprised Trump returned the next day and said that she was the only one who did not take advantage of his location. The girl just smiled and replied: "Someone has to set a trend." Trump took offense and subsequently said that it was the athlete who was trying to grab his attention.

In 1998, Katharina Witt accepted an offer to shoot for Playboy and the number with her photo on the cover became one of the best-selling in the history of the publication. It seems that she was able to achieve everything that she, a girl from a poor family, could only dream of as a child.

She experienced moments of glory and years of oblivion, returned to her homeland, securing her own future for many years to come, made a career in television, became a designer of her own line of jewelry and took up charity work. Now Katarina Witt is 55 years old, she lives in Berlin and loves to travel. Surely, in her life there was a place for bright novels and crazy hobbies. True, she remains alone today. The most beautiful athlete of the 1980s, by her own admission, preferred freedom to love.

Elena Vodorezova was only 12 years old when she became the famous and most beloved figure skater in the USSR. The little fragile girl won the hearts of fans with incredible talent and charm, and also with inhuman efficiency. It seemed that any peaks were easily conquered to her, but no one knew how cruel a young Soviet athlete experienced physical pain, who took part in the Olympics.