Katarina Witt 1994 Olympics SP (short program)

[mirkoapple]

Goddess!!!

[MademoiselleChopin]

Wow, that was sooo awesome! Did she win a medal?

[maxthewonderpup]

@MademoiselleChopin Nope, but she came in 6th!

[koolaidnhemlock]

like kwan, witt skated for the love of skating. she was fast, eager and always happy on the ice. you never felt like it was a job for her, but that was there to be an entertainer. she really helped move skating in the right direction

[Scarcro1]

I adore Katarina Witt! I love this program. She skates with speed and pizzazz. I think it's something that's truly lacking in many of today's figure skaters.

[paupotter16]

wow great jumps, everything was perfect

[fjn219]

A perfect performance for her parents, that was enough!

[Chris6134]

Very Nice job, as usual ! I really enjoyed it. Great jumps !

[ingriddiamond]

I never watched Katarina Witt... but thanks to the Internet I met her. She was fantastic and a great inspiration. Wow

[ja3399]

I remember Katarina in Lillehammer. Nobody was ever more competitive than Katarina, but I do think she decided to compete here for different reasons. I wonder how many kids (and not-so-young-kids) decided to skate because of Katarina? I have so much respect for her. Thanks for this memorable posting.

[barbiedick144]

This program alone made me want to learn to skate even now I will never forget the feeling.

[greekluv85]

Beautifully clean!

[ManlioGiordano]

This remains my all-time favourite with Ms. Witt! I was on clouds for days after seing that in 1994 and actually dedicated a piece to her, for that particular performance!

Did you hear what the commentator says at the end, in this video? "She makes me love this sport." Indeed. I just wish that figure skating competitions would develop more complex criteria, so that the art is rewarded rather than the jumps. What if piano competitions were decided by how loudly you can play, for comparison? :-)

[koolaidnhemlock]

i love when she does her spiral and "becomes an arrow".

[Chutson353]

My favorite Witt routine ever. Perfect except the easy 3/toe

[honeymunchies]

I also watched this at the time, spellbound. She's beautiful, every move skated cleanly and with so much feel for the music.

[koolaidnhemlock]

why can't scott hamilton shut up during the most beautiful part of the program? unbelievable...

[evespikey]

wow skating around that time was full of bright sparks, and jumping talent. Her rotation was quite loose in that double axel, would have loved to see her try a triple, i bet it wouldn't have been too far off.

[philipcwong]

that she qualified into the final group was such an accomplishment. i LOVE this short program. lillehammer brings back such great memories...and her free skate was beautiful as well.

[uzytkownik1971]

The greatest icequeen ever

[streetraver83]

what an extremly beautiful body language

[mikonido]

she is so sexy on ice...the real ice queen...

[meggichan84]

I remember watching this on TV when I was a kid. Still as good as the first time I saw it <3

[johnsonrouge]

did she ever win the gold medal?

[audgeyp]

johnsonrouge-she won in '84 and '88. Came back in 1994 Lilllehammer but by then the sport had changed a lot and what she did was technically just not enough to compete.

[indiatree]

What? Are you kidding? She won it twice....84 and 88.

[callistotheii]

She's so tall.

[BR95027]

Tja, so war sie unsere Kati aus dr guten alten DDR. ;-P

[lilSumSum69]

i loved it! the ISU are egg sucking dogs! lol

[silmalila]

I loved this programme, regardless.

This was beautiful to watch!

[russianskatingfan]

If she had done a clean triple lutz combo instead of the triple toe combo she would have finished 2nd in the short behind Kerrigan.

[eballathirteen]

man she got skills! go kat go.

[ThePomiget1]

she's amazing and she had beautiful costumes!!!

[ADEAL416]

Whatever that meant--I'm not making any statement about who should have won here--there's arguements for giving it to either one. I just said in her olympic performances she did not do the triple flip, which was what the others on this board were referring to.

[MsKendra79]

That was wonderful, now that was a special moment more so than when she won the gold in both 84 and 88

[koolaidnhemlock]

@MsKendra79 because she was skating her herself! i love this !

[koolaidnhemlock]

@MsKendra79

i think her 84 short program at Sarajevo is a classic. the costume, the face, the footwork, and speed - amazing!

[Chris6134]

@MsKendra79 Absolutely. She's so wonderful I could watch her videos all day.

[figureskater717]

Does anyone have a copy of the music??

[kianoconnell]

I love this program! She should have been placed higher! This was absolutely breath taking to watch!

[poupsr]

Katarina, la meilleure patineuse du monde pour toujours! quelle classe sur la glace!

[L11ourdes]

Katarina shows us how beautiful skating can be.

[sands107]

I feel like the skaters competing in today's circuit couldn't compete with the best of the early/mid 90s skaters in their prime. Katerina Witt, Kristi Yamaguchi,Gordeeva and Grinkov, Yuka Sato. They were beautiful skaters and beautiful performers!

I saw very little of this polish and refinement and energy in the 09 World Championship skaters :(

[koolaidnhemlock]

vintage witt, i love the choreography to this skate. really entertaining, and listen to that crowd!

[vamp2angelus]

No one Skated as gracefully as Katarina I mean for her age this was amazing, simple graceful, too beautiful

[Chutson353]

this is the only Witt routine that ever really "Wowed!" me - shame she had just a triple toe - still she got much higher scores than anyone else would've with that content because of her reputation.

[sagsagleo]

How many multiple Olympic Gold Medalists have there been in Ladies' Singles besides Kati? Only one other-Sonja Henie. Pretty well earned reputation. I'd take this any day over Baiuls' frenzied flailing arms or Kerrigans' technically sound but emotionally dead performances.

[propgad]

Not to mention Baiul's two footed landings.

[sagsagleo]

Oh(!) Baiul had so many 2 footed landings I lost count. Her free leg position(s) after doing her triple jumps were awful too.Not saying Kerrigan should've won. She was such a sourpuss and Harding?-don't even want to go there. Kati always was an excellent technician and she was the first to do a 3x Flip. Her artistry was unmatched. I never understood the big bruhaha over Baiul.Her technique was good but not great and the aforementioned flailing arms?! Figures need to be reinstated in a big way!

[propgad]

Lu Chen should have won the gold. She wasnt the skater she was in 95-96 but she was still the best at those Olympics. I wish Bonaly, Sato, Chouinard had put it together so I could say one of them should have won although I know the judges never would have gone there. Why Baiul and Kerrigan were considered head and shoulders above the rest, even in the 94 weak field, is beyond me.

I know Witt could not medal with the 94 requirements, but even without a medal I enjoyed watching her the most.

[propgad]

As for Harding she should have politely withdrawn from the games. She would not have had to admit to guilt (which she later did anyway) just withdrew on account of "not wanting to bring a sideshow to the Olympics".

People underrate Witt's tech. ability. Of course by 94 she was doing much easier jumps then the leaders but any 27 year old who had been pro for 6 years would. She still did them textbook and perfectly, and in her younger years she was one who pushed the envelope technically.

[sagsagleo]

Kati did more for the Ladies'Event than anyone since Dorothy Hamill.She was the only reason I bothered to watch in'94. The media was outta control{along w/Harding}covering all that b.s. There was NO way Tonya was going to withdraw.That would require class. Of course if she had some,the entire episode would've never happened in the first place.Witt is missed as is the spirit, artistry of what used to be"Figure" Skating.Now it's 13 year olds hurling themselves in the air.Never mind clean landings!

[Chris6134]

@sagsagleo  Agreed 100 percent. Katarina was the best ^_^

[grafgirl27]

Yeah when you think that such amazing talents such as Michelle Kwan, Midori Ito, and Irina Slutskaya could not even win 1 Olympic gold between all 3 of them and then just imagine winning TWO golds in modern times. Just wow. Not to take anything away from Henjie but competition in the pre World War 11 times was nothing like modern times, and politics to ensure favored champions wins was even 10x stronger than modern times.

[lambielkwanfan]

She got much higher scores than anyone else with that content since she is so awesome! If she had done a triple lutz combo she would be 1st in the short over Nancy easily.

[giub99]

eww, that last combo spin was bad; otherwise I was impressed tho with the footwork--never realized she was that fast.

She should have trained for atleast a flip.

[Jagna101]

lovely

[thomstephens]

What a class act! Certainly refreshing in that dog-eat-dog competition!

[1andonlyCobra]

Does anyone have CBS' version of her LP from Lillehammer?

[eggheadvogue]

"She makes me love this sport."

Now that's really all you can ask, isn't it?

[CarlaLR74]

She wasn't the best skater in terms of technical ability, but you never took your eyes off her when she was on the ice.

[a5615]

She was the first lady to land the triple flip, so she was quite good technically

[clarriona]

You say that she's the first woman ever to land a triple flip? That's bullshit! Jumps have never been her trademark.

[a5615]

That's not bullshit at all. She was the first woman to land a triple flip in competition.

During the late 70's she used to do 2Lz-3T combination as well. As she matured she stopped doing the jumps.

[andrebln1]

Have a look at the 1983 world's here on youtube. Katarina was the ONLY woman who did a triple flip at that time!

[iceroby72]

I don't understand why you had so many thumbs down... It's so weird....

[iceroby72]

I still don't understand why telling the trou deserves thumbs down... she really was credited as the first woman to lend a triple flip and is also true that she had lost some jumping elements she use to do in her early years,,,, like the duble lutz/triple toe combo ...You guys must be mad...

[koolaidnhemlock]

huge witt fan here, and you're completely right. i think at the time the ISU did not want "gymnastics on ice" so they dissuaded female skaters from doing too many triples. the double lutz-triple toe was an awesome combo and she was good at the 3 flip. i wish she had worked on them, but at the time, it was figure skating, not the jumping competition it is today.

[ADEAL416]

Only in her much younger years--that is, even before she won her first olympics when she was 18, in '84. The hardest jump she landed in any of her gold medal winning performances was a triple Salchow

[iceroby72]

I just want to remind you that in the old judging system the salchow was considered the easyest of the 6 jumps

[ADEAL416]

True. I guess I was thinking more in the modern system, which considers the toe loop the easiest. But still, in her olympic programs, the only triples she landed were the Salchow and toe loop. She never landed a triple flip or loop in an Olympic competition.

[koolaidnhemlock]

she attempted a 3 loop in the free skate in 94, and came *this* close ; )

[sagsagleo]

It's different competing in your late teens early 20's then when you're pushing 30. I've always loved watching Kati skate.She was a true competitor taking it seriously.She knew she hadn't a chance at this Olympics. This one was for Mom and Dad to see their pride and joy,their precious-oh how I've always loved her probably as much as they have-daughter in the Olympics.She just made you feel happy-forget your worries just watching her. She's given so much to this Sport.

[yngtxtopbear]

Witt has one of the best layback spins I think I have ever seen. It is in a corkscrew position but its so pretty. Wish the jumpin midgets nowadays could do something that pretty.

[maxthewonderpup]

Interesting you say that as she really didn't like doing that spin and almost never performed it past the 88 Olympics.  This one was nice, but others might argue there are better ones out there. ;)

[thomstephens]

@yngtxtopbear Great comment!

[Chutson353]

This is my favorite Witt program - easy combo but beautifully executed - she always had great position in the air and nice tight rotations

[premierrules]

Absolut wunderbar! Lovely programme. Ok, simple combination but choreography superb. She had character on the ice and I loved her. Remember Worlds 87 with West Side Story programme when she hit triple loop for the 1st time? Katarina - Ich liebe dich Schnukiputz!!

[suraaldy]

Thank you for posting this! I always wanted to see it.

[maxthewonderpup]

you're welcome! :)

[Astardis]

It stands high above her usual short programs, except maybe for the infamous yet wonderfully choreographed 86 program.

[ICDaveIsGorges]

Is this a Sandra Bezic program?

[sbe79]

Probably... she choreographed the long program to "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?"

[sbe79]

A pretty sweet short program. I missed seeing it.

[maxthewonderpup]

yup, it was really nice seeing her skate it cleanly after having trouble at Europeans.