Katarina Witt - 1988 Budapest

Katarina Witt - 1988 Budapest

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Sports

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• Katarina
• Witt

[Astardis]

@TheHoopify It's a lot of posing, I agree. But... can you name any other female skater of her day that you would care to watch just 'posing' for 115 seconds between one double jump and the next? I'm telling you this: Her posing is more art than most other skaters' jumps ever will be.

[Chris6134]

Sehr wunderbar und Echt Klasse ! Katarina war die beste der Welt.

[indiatree]

@TheHoopify She was doing the triple loop in the warm ups, but not consistently. Here at worlds she tried it twice in the 6 minute warm up, and fell on it both times. At the Olympics, she was attempting it during her practices, but it was weak and not well landed. She had a brace on her left knee during the Olympics (even during the actual performances) and maybe that had something to do with it.

[indiatree]

@mlc2005 Part of it might be that in 1987 her school figures were terrible. She placed 4th at Europeans and 5th at Worlds. By 1988 she had improved greatly in the figures placing 3rd at the Olympics and 1st at Worlds. Even Alec Mcgowan, Debi Thomas' coach, remarked on what an improvement there was. But that improvement came as the result of more practice time devoted to figures, taking time away from her free skating practice time. Plus she had to learn two new programs for 1988.

[indiatree]

@laudese The only reason I know about him, is that in the stars on ice tour that followed this 1988 Olympic season, he was listed in the program as her longtime choreographer. It said he was responsible for this Carmen. I think alot of the East German coaches and choreographers were looked upon with derision after the Berlin Wall came down and were never hired by the west Germans. (Jutta Mueller resorted to coaching small children). The choreography here is tailored to her strengths.

[laudese]

@indiatree Thank you for the info! I googled him but nothing really came up. I wonder how much of the greatness of Katarina's Carmen is due to the exceptional choreography or her way of skating it. I don't think any other skater could have performed the same choreography like she did.

[indiatree]

@laudese Rudy Schug did the choreography. He did most of her choreography , and he can be seen in when she comes off the ice here (you might need to look for a longer clip of this). He can also be seen in one of the 1984 Olympic ABC features where she is dancing to Billie Jean in her practice dance studio in Germany. I don't know what ever happened to him, but this program and her 1986 short program were extremely well choreographed. Exceptional.

[laudese]

does anyone know who choreographed this program? Katarina is not one of my favorite skaters (or people for that matter) but this program is art.

[mlc2005]

It's weird though, b/c remember, ONE year earlier, she did her most difficult free program at worlds (and certainly best), landing five triples (including a triple loop) and two double axles. I wonder why the change?  This was all posing. This was, like Hamilton's Gold 4 year's earlier, a reputation gold unfortunately. Although, she didn't win the free skate, and Debi could have won had she not totally bombed.

[yescanto]

Drug cheat.