Katarina Witt
Katarina Witt (born 3 December 1965) is a German former figure skater who is widely regarded as one of the greatest in women’s singles. She competed for East Germany and later for a reunified Germany.
Witt grew up near Berlin and trained at SC Karl-Marx-Stadt with coach Jutta Müller, skating six days a week. She rose quickly in the early 1980s, winning her first major titles and earning medals at the European and World Championships.
Her career peak came in the mid-to-late 1980s. She won two Olympic gold medals: at Sarajevo in 1984 and at Calgary in 1988, becoming one of the few skaters to successfully defend an Olympic title. In 1988, she and Debi Thomas were known as the “Battle of the Carmens.” Witt also dominated the European Championships, winning six consecutive titles from 1983 to 1988, and she was a four-time World Champion (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988) with two World silver medals (1982, 1986).
In 1994, Witt returned to competition for a reunified Germany at Lillehammer, delivering a moving free skate that paid tribute to Sarajevo and earning the Golden Kamera for her comeback.
After turning professional in 1988, Witt toured in the United States with Brian Boitano and later performed in Europe. She starred in Carmen on Ice (1989), which earned her an Emmy in 1990. While she was less successful as a professional competitor, she remained a popular show skater and actress.
Witt helped shape skating culture and rules with her bold costumes; a dramatic outfit in 1988 led to ISU regulations requiring more modest dress, a change sometimes called the "Katarina rule." She published an autobiography and was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1995. She has since appeared in films, on television, and on various entertainment and judging programs, including a stint as a judge on Dancing on Ice.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:27 (CET).