Katarina Witt (GDR) - 1984 Sarajevo, Figure Skating, Ladies' Long Program

[pelicanus11]

if she had the face of a mutant pig with leprosy i wonder if she would have scored the same

[pelicanus11]

i never liked her style Her jumps are slow and heavy

[safehaven11]

Katarina looked like she was having a lot of fun compared to Rosalynn. Her program certainly looked a lot cleaner and put together wherareas Rosalynn looked like Plushneko going from jump to jump.

[libralady1010]

She had a leg problem-one leg was longer than other throwing off the timing on her jumps but Marjorie Chin put a whole different meaning on the term ' Skating Mother.'I think it's remarkable that Chin could come back after so many months off the ice in 1985 and win a bronze medal @ 1986 Worlds'...but for the 2nd and final time, she was not ' held up'@ 1987 Nat'ls. Chin's Mom was shouting at her during practice run throughs@ '86 Worlds: kept changing coaches;they-USFSA-didn't want the turmoil.

[russianskatingfan]

Sumners never developed much character or personality in her skating even as a pro. Her skating, costumes, and choreography remained safe, predictable and old fashioned, 60s like pretty girl skating. And she continued to have problems with popping jumps in competition even with her lesser content. Even Fratianne was a stronger jumper than Sumners and she was in her prime in the 70s when women were still hardly ever doing triples.

[karrtt1234]

Her spins are terrible she travels all over the place, and what junior quality lay-back. Her final spin, the strach spin was fine.

[safehaven11]

This was such a beautiful program. No wonder it won the freeskate. Katarina is indeed a beautiful skater. If I were a judge, I'd choose her over Rosalynn.

[Guymac100]

Just met her two days ago - nice lady

[koolaidnhemlock]

the double lutz- triple toe i think won it for her. awesome combo

[libralady1010]

She really did a spectacular 3 toe loop there at the end, didn't she in addition to other technical elements. Kati was always superb in the technical areas.The overall program was great. I prefer this program over the Carmen program in 1988 although Carmen was great. This one in '84 was full of such joy though.

[bze2nlz1]

@libralady1010 I don't know what the female commentator @ 2:30 meant by her choreography was 'just not well done.' I don't understand why she would say that.

[libralady1010]

Well that particular commentator ;-) skated against the daughter of Katarina's coach who was Jutta Muellar. The daughter was Gaby Seyfert who won the 1968 Silver Medal when Peggy Fleming-the commentator-won the Gold at Grenoble. Peggy was very into artistry and not athleticism then. I thought Witt was great. She just had a good time out there!

[koolaidnhemlock]

@bze2nlz1 peggy drank the haterade when it came to Kat. she also said that even though kat won 2 olympic golds she wouldn't be remembered as a legend. (yea right).

[indiatree]

@bze2nlz1 I think what peggy was getting at there, was that in that section, the design of the choregraphy had Witt just sort of cramped in one area of the ice for a long period of time. She wasn't using the ice surface effectively to show off her flow and the spirit of the music. Although I liked this program, I would agree about that section. It should have been reworked a little bit.

[libralady1010]

@indiatree No I don't think that was case. She had so much joy in her program and it was a - for want of a better word - happy music. Roslyn had music that sounded like an approaching thunderstorm and kept saying in 1983 and early 1984 ' " I just KNOW I'm going to win." ' That kind of remark gets around and doesn't sit well w/ the judges. Plus Roz didn't have to screw up her Short Program.

[russianskatingfan]

@libralady1010 Sumners's program kind of sucked and the only reason she came even close to winning was that she was the reigning World Champion. I cant believe she was placed over Tiffany Chin and Elaine Zayak in the long program watching both of their skates. Chin imparticular outperformed Sumners on BOTH the technical and artistic side in both the short and long programs here.

[libralady1010]

@russianskatingfan It was alright-kinda- but I can't believe her " team" suggested a white dress-Ice is white!?! Hello?!No to mention Skates&she didn't help herself w/those extremely tan leggings&heavy rouge.The USFSA screwed that one up,that's for sure.They didn't like Elaines' triples&when you think Elaine was missing part of a foot(!).Sumners won the 1982 Nat'l title w/ONE triple.Even Linda Fratianne had two triples in 1977. Elaine was a fighter on the ice.Delicacy went out w/Peggy Fleming.

[russianskatingfan]

@libralady1010 the USFSA definitely didnt like Elaine. It seems they were just waiting for anyone to push the top over her as she didnt fit their ideal of a pretty ice princess. Then again Elaine also had a couple rought years of skating after her World title, and I think everyone including the USFSA was probably stunned how well she skated in Sarajevo. After the figures results it was clear the USFSA had sold out both Zayak and Chin to promote Sumners 100% to give her the best shot of winning.

[libralady1010]

@russianskatingfan Oh yeah they definitely threw both Zayak and Chin under a bus during Figures. Really am stunned how they could so easily forget that Zayak was a World Champion, too. That said, when I saw Kati's SP in Hartford @81 Worlds 'remember saying to my husband 'there's the 84 Gold Medalist.Anyone who could skate to the Muppets and have so much presence@15 years of age-well they're on their way.'He said ,No her figures weren't good-I said then they'll MAKE them good.

[russianskatingfan]

@libralady1010 It is funny too how back in 84 many were predicting 4th was great debut for Chin since she was just going to come back and win in 88. It turned out even at only 16 that 84 was her only real shot. Back in 81 things looked really exciting for 84. You had Witt, Zayak, Wainmann, Biellmann, all looking as potential winners for 84. 2 of those 4 didnt even make it to 84 though. I remember at the 1980 Worlds though Debbie Wilkes predicting Witt would be better than Poetzsch.

[3Axel1996]

@russianskatingfan Biellmann only wanted to give 81 a shot because of the change in the scoring system. After winning the title, that was that because she just hated competing Compulsory Figures so much. For other skaters, it was unpredictability. No one predicted that Wainman would burn out so early and would retire before making an unsuccessful comeback. And then with Tiffany Chin, just blame her Mom for interfering with her career too much.

[russianskatingfan]

@3Axel1996 Didnt Chin have a bad leg problem that hampered her too though? It also seemed that she swallowed up by the U.S depth and Thomas, Kadavy, and Trenary all just passed her by. Maybe that is because her own skating declined though.

[3Axel1996]

@russianskatingfan Thomas, Kadavy and Trenary all passed Tiffany because of Tiffany's mom. 8 months off the ice after the 1985 season is unheard of, but she managed to fight back and do well at the 86 Worldds. All seemed fine into July 86, when she was still with John Nicks and skated a nice exhibition performance at the 86 Goodwill Games, and then sometime between Aug and Dec 1986, it all went to hell. Tiffany switched from Nicks and back to Carroll,...

[libralady1010]

@russianskatingfan Poetzch wisely decided to retire after 1980. Smart move w/an exuberant, energetic 14 year old Witt nipping at her heels.think Anett knew when to make an exit as there was a LOT of whispering Fratianne had been robbed [ well let's face it, she was !] so Anett hung up her skates.Find it interesting, too that Trenary finished 4th in '88 and they were predicting 1992 would be HER year but sadly it was not meant to be.She showed tho, when Figures are done right,they can be great.

[3Axel1996]

@libralady1010 Don't forget...Jill was forced to have surgery for a staph infection to her right ankle. After that, she never was able to regain her form to be able to land a triple jump and retired before the 92 Nationals.

[libralady1010]

@3Axel1996 Oh I remember that!It was so heartbreaking at her final press conference when she said ' it's not the same sport I trained for.' They'd completely done away w/Figures.I can't even imagine leaving home @age 15 to train in '83 w/the best, Carlo Fassi, then they change the rules on you in mid-stream...I know her last performance was either@ Skate Canada or Skate America(?)She looked absolutely gorgeous in a beautiful dress and if I'm not mistaken,think she was training w/Carol Heiss.

[3Axel1996]

@libralady1010 Skate Canada, and it was a rough competition because she fell or fell out of every triple she attempted. Carol Heiss was her new coach as Jill did not want to relocate to Milan with the Fassis, so that was a rough transition as well. In an interview, Heiss mentioned that their goal was to add the loop and/or the Lutz to her repetoire of jumps, but obviously, that didn't happen...

[russianskatingfan]

The change had to happen at some point but it was unfair to whichever generation was hit by it . Skaters who had grown up training only the triple sal, triple toe, and sometimes the triple loop since that was all that was needed in the figures era to compete, and suddenly they had to try and learn triple lutz, triple flip, and even triple axel to try and keep up with the young jumping beans who had already trained just waiting the phase out of figures. It was impossible for these girls really.

[libralady1010]

@bze2nlz1 AS stated before by another poster, Peggy had a serious case of haterade. She really did. She though Roslyn was another ' Peggy.' ! She really pushed Roz in the US Nationals. Roz choked. Pure and simple.

[grafgirl27]

@libralady1010 Roz was not another Peggy. Peggy was a clutch and killer competitor in her day. Sumners is not.

[libralady1010]

@grafgirl27 Boy!!.. you got that right !! Not to mention Katis' coach had been to ' how many Olympics,' Katarina had her coach, Frau Mueller and her artistic/technical coach w/ her and Sumners had an Army-I think 19 people were w/her and this was Bormans' first Olympics. Roz even said after Witt's program was over, Borman came backstage chalk-white and didn't say a word. Plus,Anett Poetszh was Witt's sister-in-law [ married to Witts' brother ] Sure Anett gave her some pointers on the Olympics.

[proxy22]

and there begins the domination of katarina witt

[100307atsu]

カルガリー五輪のカルメンも良かったけど、可愛らしく、若さがは­じけた、この伸び伸びとしたフリープログラムが大好きでした。２­シーズン滑ったけど、いつもワクワクして見ていました。ジャンプ­を降りた時の姿勢と流れがとても美しいです。彼女こそ銀盤の女王­！