Katarina Witt has continued to dazzle audiences winning two Olympic gold medals for East Germany, first at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and the second in 1988 at the Calgary Olympics. She is a four-time World champion (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988) and twice World silver medalist (1982, 1986). A feat only equaled by Sonja Henie among female skaters, Witt won six consecutive European Championships (1983–1988). Her competitive record makes her one of the most successful figure skaters of all time. To know more about her successful career and her present endeavors, do check out her Website or follow her on Instagram.
Most successful figure skater Katarina Witt shares her spectacular journey towards being the World’s Best Figure Skater, in this exclusive interview with Namita Nayyar, President Women Fitness.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You are considered one of the most successful figure skaters of all time having won two Olympic gold medals, being a four-time World Champion and twice World Silver Medalist. Tell us more about your spectacular journey and how it all began?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
Luckily I found my passion for figure skating very early in life. At five and a half, I discovered while walking by the ice rink with my kinder-garden group that I very quickly fell in love with figure skating and I begged my parents for many many weeks to please please please bring me to figure skating and let me start figure skating. And finally my mom one day took me and my very first coach right away put me on the ice. And somehow I took it like I belonged to it right away. And from this time on, from five and a half, I stayed on the ice and I became a figure skater and still I’m very grateful and lucky that I found my passion in a very early age.
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All Written Content Copyright © 2017 Women Fitness
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Introduce us to a day in the life of a figure skater, preparing for the Olympic Games.
Ms. Katarina Witt:
My typical training routine preparing for the Olympics was to practice all day long. By the time we had 2-3 hours of a day off-ice training, almost 3 hours of figure skating a day where I rehearsed my drums, my spin, my step-sequences, and I had to run through my programs, my short program and my long program, and besides ofcourse I had ballet classes, 3-4 times a week, which I did not enjoy as much because classical ballet I’d rather watch on other beautiful ballet dancers but still it was part of our practice routine and it helped me for my off ice-training and my programs and ofcourse we had lots of hours of athletic training. Workout hours doing weight lifting, doing jumps off the ice, and lots of routines for strengthening your body, your legs, your arms, your back.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
What exercises comprise your fitness regime or workout routine that you may like to share?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
I think figure skating in general is a great exercise for the entire body. By strengthening your legs, your butt, your upper body, learning about balance keeping and ofcourse for conditions. So I would suggest whoever likes to have fun and have a good time, Start figure skating!
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
What was your diet like, that you followed to remain healthy and physically fit?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
Ofcourse being a figure skater, you need to be very strong, have lots of muscles to be able to do all the triple jumps and get through your routines. And at the same time you need to be slim and for this we had mostly meat and vegetables, and salads and maybe sometimes potatoes and pasta, because by that time science and food was not as advanced as it is these days. But being a teenager, I liked sweets, so I did like chocolate and ice cream and sometimes over the summer I would put on some weight but with the right training and diet, I started to lose weight again and I gained the body I needed for figure skating.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Training for professional sports requires you to also take care of your hair and body. Share with us your haircare and skincare routine.
Ms. Katarina Witt:
Honestly I have very healthy skin and hair, I have to do nothing for my hair except shampooing and a little bit of conditioner, nothing extra. For my skin, I have regular nice cream for the day and for the evening, nothing special, just to get moisture into the skin. And I think here it really helps, when you do your workout and you start to have a sweat and you get your blood running through your body, I think, that shows in your healthy skin as well. With healthy food, regular workout, drinking enough and just taking care of yourself but nothing really special just trying to do healthy things all around.
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Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Who has been your greatest influence and motivator in your success in the field of your career?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
I think my greatest motivator and mentor was my coach Frau Mueller, who always kept me pushing through my training, and always making sure that I know that I have the talent to become a champion and that I was for her like a raw diamond, and she helped and made sure that I turned into one of the best figure skaters in the 80’s. I’m still very thankful and grateful to her and ofcourse my parents, who have always been there, helping me smoothen up or down in my skating career and besides the ice and motivation wise, I from a very early age on, I loved competition, I loved the pressure and I loved to be in a competition and just compete and I wanted to be the best in the world and I wanted to keep that success for many years, and I think that was motivation enough to stay in the amateur worlds in the entire 80s and have a great time at competitions and know great competitors, beside me, who made it not easy for me to keep winning.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You won six consecutive European Championships (1983–1988), a feat only equaled by Sonja Henie among female skaters. How did you feel after giving such breakthrough performances?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
Well Sonja Henie actually has 3 Olympic gold medals, I have 2 Olympic gold medals, but still I’m in almost one successful line like she is, she is ofcourse the most successful figure skater ever, but she was in her 30s and I am luckily still alive and I have tried to follow her footsteps and she has become such a great legend as a figure skater and then a big Hollywood star in America, but at the same time she has been very controversial too because during her athletes time, during the 30s and 40s, which were terrible years in Europe with the Second World War too, but as a figure skater she has claimed incredible success and I myself say Sonja Henie is the most successful figure skater but I’m right after her and so far luckily I’m the only woman in figure skating who has won 2 consecutive gold medals in figure skating. But actually I am hoping that one day one girl would reach the same success that I did. But I’m so honored after all that so many people remember my figure skating career and still tell me how much and how passionately they followed my skating during my skating career.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You posed nude for Playboy magazine for their December 1998 issue, which was the second ever sold-out issue of the magazine. What was your inspiration and motivation behind this endeavor of yours?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
The Playboy was after me for 10 years! They wanted already that I would pose for them in 1988 but that was way too close on my amateur career. And then in 1998, I was somehow old enough, mature enough and I was in heights of my career. I never used that posing to become more famous. I think at this point, I was already so settled in my career and I found that figure skating was such a family sport and such ice-princess image that I wanted to rebound a little bit and celebrate feminism, and that’s why I did it.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
You have also written an excellent book on health and fitness tips, “Healthy and Fit with Kati Witt”. Would you like to share some of these with our readers?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
People have always asked me how would I stay so healthy and fit, and what made me so happy and alive, and in that book I tried to share what my experiences are and its more about how to stay healthy in life, not about being fit like a competitor but being healthy and giving easy exercise advice to get more fit and more healthy through life.
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Ms. Namita Nayyar:
To honor your win in Calgary, North Korea issued miniature sheets with three large pictures of you on the ice and Time magazine called you “the most beautiful face of socialism.” How did you feel about being honored by them?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
Honestly I don’t know this at all, that was TIME North Korea. I know that the slogan “the most beautiful face of socialism” came actually from a journalist from TIME magazine or Sports Illustrated who had watched me at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, and I was compared to ‘oh she looks like Brooke Shields’ and Brooke Shields was a great sweetheart, and a loved sweetheart at this time because of her big success movie, The Blue Lagoon. And actually many many years later I met her in a Sun Valley and she came upto me and she said “Oh its like meeting a sister!” and for me it was the same, because both of us thought that we look so much alike. And that journalist actually had said that if this is the true face of socialism, America could become a socialist country, and that’s why that slogan stayed for me until now these days, which I think is a cute impression and a very emotional, out-spoken moment that that journalist had.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Advice and motivational words to the inspiring and budding female figure skaters who all are your fans, they shall like to know from you, what they should do for their climb to ladder of success in this field?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
Honestly, the skaters that I have been watching these days are incredible! They are physically and mentally so strong that I really admire them. Ofcourse I am very proud of my success and all the medals I have won and that it is unbeaten until these days but when I watch figure skating these days with the triple combinations and the high levels of spins and the incredible execution of step sequences I am totally in awe of what these women and men what they deliver out their on the ice for performances. Its just incredible. I don’t think I need to give any advice, they are just doing fine as they are. I think they just love what they do, like I did what I loved when I was skating.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
What do you wish to say about the website Womenfitness.net and message for its visitors?
Ms. Katarina Witt:
I wish Women Fitness from the bottom of my heart “Happy Birthday”! All the best! Continue your wonderful website and be such a good answer to all the questions that women and girls in the world have to you and give them the best advice that you can have and just continue the wonderful and incredible work of your passionate team.
Follow her on:
- https://www.facebook.com/KatarinaWitt
- http://www.katarina-witt-stiftung.de
- https://www.instagram.com/katarinawitt/
Women Fitness Team extends our heartfelt gratitude to Katarina Witt for taking out time from her busy schedule and doing this interview with us.
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All content on this site is copyright of Women Fitness and no part of any article found on this site may be reproduced without an express permission and highlighted, do follow link crediting http://www.womenfitness.net/ or preferably the original page as the source. This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar President womenfitness.net and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2017 Women Fitness