WITT, KATARINA

born Dec. 3, 1965, Karl-Marx-Stadt, E.Ger. [now Chemnitz, Ger.] German figure skater who was the first woman to win consecutive Olympic gold medals (1984 and 1988) in singles figure skating since Sonja Henie in 1936. The charismatic Witt defined the sport in the 1980s with her flirtatious and graceful performances. She won four world titles (198485 and 198788) and six European championships (198388). Witt began skating at the age of five and soon attracted the attention of East German sports officials, who placed her in the country's special training program. She practiced with Jutta Mller, one of the world's premier figure-skating coaches, who encouraged Witt to express her engaging personality on the ice. In 1981 Witt won her first major competition, capturing the East German national championship, a title she would hold for the next seven years. Witt entered the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now in Bosnia and Herzegovina), as a favourite to medal even though she had never won a world title. Coming from behind during her forte, the free skate, Witt defeated American Rosalynn Sumners by only 0.1 point to capture the gold. At the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Witt faced the only skater to have defeated her in five years, American Debi Thomas. Both women skated to music from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen in the long program, but Witt's masterly interpretation of the heroine brought a new style of sensual grace and theatre to the ice, and she retained the Olympic title. After winning her final world championship in 1988, Witt retired from amateur skating. In 1990 she starred in the television special Carmen on Ice, a performance that garnered her the first Emmy Award given to a female figure skater. In the same year, Witt and Brian Boitano developed a skating program that toured the United States. She joined Stars on Ice in 1994. A change in Olympic rules allowed Witt to return to the ice at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway, where she managed only a seventh-place finish.