Katarina Witt

Only With Passion: Figure Skating’s Most Winning Champion on Competition and Life

Katarina Witt Book Cover

In the glamorous, ultra-competitive world of figure skating, Katarina Witt is a living legend. She has won more titles than anyone else before her — including two Olympic gold medals, four world championships, and eight national championships. She is also renowned for independence and self-possession in a world where many stars are in thrall to management companies, and for her ability to stay true to skating while developing new careers in business, movies and television.

Witt has always done whatever she’s done with all her heart — with passion, intelligence, and a love of perfection. Now, in Only with Passion, she offers advice to a new generation of women athletes making their way in the world on how to live full out, compete with edge, and navigate life with grace. When a young skater consults her for advice on whether to train abroad — and leave a boyfriend behind — Witt finds occasion to recall the major turning points of her own journey, from her East German childhood to the international spotlight. She shares her inside perspective and frank opinions on the insular world of skating and offers her views about what it takes to be a champion, and to create a fulfilling life. Whether she’s talking about life on or off the ice (or on the cover of Playboy !), Witt is always candid, fresh, and down-to-earth.

Written with E.M. Swift, author of My Sergei , one of the best-selling skating books of all time, Only with Passion is the perfect gift for young women, young athletes — particularly skaters — and skating fans of all ages.

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Biography

Katarina Witt was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, in former East Germany, on December 3, 1965. Witt began skating at the age of five and her inherent ability was evident immediately. At the Sport Club in Karl-Marx-Stadt, young Katarina went to school while she learned to skate under the tutelage of Bernd Egert. When she was nine, Witt was placed under the coaching direction of one of Germany’s most prominent skating coaches, Jutta Müller. She eventually started spending four hours a day on the ice, sacrificing leisure time and family life to the sport she grew to love. Under Müller’s coaching, Witt’s talents expanded, and at age 11 she landed her first triple jump. At age 14, she finished tenth in the 1980 world championships, and after winning two European titles, she burst into international stardom by taking the gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now in Bosnia and Herzegovina). Witt dominated the figure skating world for the next several years, winning the world titles in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, she became the first figure skater since Sonja Henie (in 1932) to win a second Olympic gold medal. She turned professional in the summer of 1988 and could not participate in the 1992 Winter Olympics; Witt maintained her place in the public eye as a CBS television commentator for the figure skating competition. When professional skaters were admitted into Olympic competition, she returned to skate in the 1994 Olympic Games at Lillehammer, Norway. Although Witt did not place very high, she was a sentimental favorite of the crowd. Witt’s skating was admired for its athletic prowess, but her greatest strength was her free skating. She had a charismatic appeal to crowd and judges alike, and her grace, elegance, and flirtatious manner won her international acclaim. 

Katarina has enjoyed continued success as a professional, touring North America with several figure skating shows including ‘Skating I & II” in which she starred with Brian Boitano. She made her skating debut with “Discover Card Stars on Ice” in April 1994 and joined the cast full time for the 1994-95 season. Witt will be a cast member for the first half of the 1997-98 season of “Discover Stars on Ice.”

In recent years, Witt has become a media fixture lending her talents to television, motion pictures and sports commentary. In 1990, she won an Emmy Award for her starring performance in the title role of HBO’s “Carmen on Ice”. She also starred in the CBC-TV special “Women in Red”, which was broadcast in 1991 throughout Europe and Canada. Witt and HBO co-produced a modern adaptation of the classic “Cinderella”, called “Ice Princess”. She had a cameo in the movies “Jerry Maguire”, and “Ronin”. Witt has also made appearances on HBO’s show called “Arliss”, and as a caller on “Frasier”. She now draws more attention as she currently graces the cover of the December 1998 issue of Playboy with a ten-page pictorial inside. In the near future, Katarina Witt will be returning the ice.