Katarina Witt - 1987 World Championships Short Program

[@koolaidnhemlock]

great footwork sequence!

[@mhughes72]

I was at this unforgettable competition. The day before, Katarina performed this piece at a practice session to a SRO crowd. THAT time was the best she had ever performed it-no nerves, just skating from pure joy. She tore the house down at a practice and never looked back; that single moment in Cincinnati is when she began to win over the American audience. Experts can pick apart Katarina's technical skill until the cows return, but she was truly unique and one of a kind. Mary Hughes

[@shayneinsc]

great footwork

[@victoriagill3337]

I don’t think people appreciate how difficult the layback with the additional arm movement is to centre. And it’s right on the spot

[@victoriagill3337]

Would love to see this again from the Europeans if anyone has a recording. I think she skated it slightly better. Annoyingly my father recorded over my copy - deliberately 😡

[@victoriagill3337]

@@azbycx56 the Sally Anne Stapleford that was banished from the ISU for trying to set up a rival organisation 😱

[@victoriagill3337]

So there is a recording on here from the European championships and she was behind the music there. Hit every movement on the beat here, hard to do for such a fast programme

[@greginspace64]

I believe the secret of Katarina's success is that she was a technical skater that was successfully marketed as an artistic one. If you look at her early 80's performances, it is clear she was being trained to compete with Elaine Zayak. Just look at the difficulty of her jumps and combinations at that time; she even had a triple flip attempt in the 1982 World's long. When it became clear that U.S. Figure Skating had jettisoned Zayak in favor of Sumners, it appears that team Witt went into. . .

[@PhilAlumb]

You're Wrong.. Katarina skated the EASIEST TRIPLE COMBINATION of ALL the Ladies in the TECHNICAL PROGRAM and.......Still won. The European Block JUDGES gave her CONFIDENCE.

[@victoriagill3337]

2Lz 3T was not the easiest combination though - she used that in 83 & 84. However later when she did 3T 2T she was sensible enough to perform all her jumps cleanly when others didn’t

[@yodabeesh]

First time I've seen this one. Great OP as usual from Katarina, but I did find the pony tail and the blouse with the image of Frau Muller to be a little bit distracting.

[@schulz1]

This was one of great ladies' competitions of all time and it could have gone in so many different directions. A number of girls could have won but Katarina had a little luck and a lot of bottle on her side and she came through.

[@grantnoroyan9275]

its been said before and its worth repeating she was NEVER the best skater she was the best competitor!!!

[@achnix3167]

@@grantnoroyan9275 wrong she was not the best jumper but skater always.

[@victoriagill3337]

@@achnix3167 she had the perfect combination of technical elements and artistic presentation

[@russianskatingfan]

Those look about right to me. How did Leistner and Kondrashova skate. I didnt see them. I agree Ivanova was robbed of a higher placing, and Kadavy and Ito also deserved higher. Witt's skate wasnt great for her standards, and whiny Manley was overmarked as usual. I thought Thomas deserved to be no higher then 7th with that big mistake and if Leistner and Kondrashova had been clean I would put them over her too.

[@calexsif]

did her jumps seem very low, lower than usual for her?

[@MrOu83]

Wtt's rendition of Carmen was hardly world reknown." Arrtistically, it was an theatrical, over-the-top performance that lacked a real ure skating and athleticism. She spent the slow portion of the program essentially posing. Her style is more suited to ice dancing, in the same category of the Russian ice dancer Natalia Bestemianova (along with her partner Andre bukin).

[@victoriagill3337]

Doing a slow step sequence perfectly with control is technically quite hard to do. Try it sometime 😊

[@bendonna]

Katarina really cut it at the 1993 Europeans! Oh yeah and the 1994 Olympics...Why do people feel they must put down a competitor to make their favorite look better. This was not a good short program, her long was phenomenal

[@TheSienna29]

Reminds me of Gordeeva and Grinkov's LP music from the same competition. Neither Witt nor G&G did the music any justice.

[@ffartisan]

If Debi didn't fall on her double axle, she would of had Katarina beat in this portion of the competition.

[@sbe79]

This costume is hideous, even by late 80s European standards. Is that really Frau Mueller on her shirt? She looks dressed for the gym -- not dressed for defended a world title. The program itself has the feel of a practice session. She certainly didn't have to try very hard in those days, eh? :)

[@maynardrsean]

sbe79 I so much agree with you on the choice of costume !! Makes absolutely no sense at all why she is wearing this and not at all fitting with the SP music she was skating too.

[@koolaidnhemlock]

the hair, the make up, the outfit.. this is pure 80's GOLD

[@toffeecafe4]

She had the best choreography east or west. Today they just slide around waiting for their next jump.

[@MsSlucyna]

Yes, slidinggaining speed to jump,and performing some contortonist tricks in the meantime.

[@aspiethecat4475]

So true, unfortunately😢. I hardly ever watch it on TV now. I admit they do a lot of quadruples and that's difficult. But rmembering Witt, Biellmann, Ito and all the others I really wish I could turn back time. The quadruples destroy everything, including the atletes's bones. And the skaters Look really stressed when performing. Look at Witt: she enjoyed every moment of her programme! Of course, she didn't want to disappoint her parents, her coaches and her nation. Today, however, there is additional stress by the media, sponsors and other financial issues. Originality is gone now...

[@russianskatingfan]

You have to hand it to Katarina though. She may not have the most perfect style ever, nor the soundest technique ever, nor the hardest programs, but she was the ultimate competitor. When it comes to delivering in the clutch and rising to the occasion nobody was better than Witt, possibly in the history of the sport.

[@anthbig]

HOTTEST LEGS and WOMAN...to ever skate!!!! FLAMING HOT!!

[@davidwesley2525]

I Agree Katarina Witt is a HOT FOX.🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩❤❤❤

[@PhilAlumb]

Katarina skated the EASIEST TRIPLE JUMP COMBINATION in the entire Ladies Competition and.....Still won. Those Sneaky, European Block Voting Judges ALWAYS made sure Kat was First.

[@kerstinmuller1492]

Super katy,,,klasse Frau und Sportlerin 😊😊❤❤

[@Brissieskater1]

Frau Muller certainly knew which music would make a significant impact on the world stage and this is one area that the East German Government couldn't stop from happening.

[@nondescriptnyc]

whammykiss1, remember, it was the 80s--when aerobics was often equated with artistry in the skating world. From today's standard, this probably qualifies as horrible/embarrassing, but a performance like this was actually considered refreshing and even sansational back then. There was a lot of hopping, shaking, and sliding... GDR never really revealed their choreographers, but I am assuming Frau Mueller's team packaged Katarina.

[@metsdudenj]

@zecrazygerman Wrong. She won because Witt fell in the SP

[@bendonna]

caryn, jill, midori....

[@Ggirl91]

@livuali its kinda cool choreography...but she was no dancer so it looks a bit awkward...would like to see that layback under IJS...she could get marks for those arms

[@shayneinsc]

i don't want to get into your argument, but since no one has answered you, they are named after the people who invented them

[@TheSienna29]

Guys, Sumners and Zayak did not compete at this competition.

[@karrtt1234]

@aquamarineeyes B.S. ... Bolero is a masterpiece of skating, the battle of the Carmen's was a non event ... and niether of Witt skates of Carmen at the Oylmpics or the World Championships would be considered a great skate, and niether was worlthy of a Gold medal... she was gifted both ! The only thing memorable about her skates was the fact that she go gold for both of the poor performances.. a complete debacle !

[@shihlin1]

She changed the SP from 86, but still kept the LP (West Side Story). This SP stands out as ranking one of her worst ones in terms of originality and execution.

[@bendonna]

She was 6th in figures and won the short and long, usually she was a lot lower in figures, and did not win the short.

[@victoriagill3337]

5th in figures

[@MrOu83]

@diskplaying - To follow you logic, Katarina should feel lucky that Debi thomas erred on her double axel (a jump she could normally do in her sleep) in the sp, otherwiseKatarina would not have won the '87 nationals, and Witt would have been a back-to-back loser to Thomas at the worlds.

[@victoriagill3337]

Maybe the same could be said in 86 when Witt erred on her double loop. There are those who believe Thomas didn’t so much win as Witt lost it. Sadly neither of them skated to the best of their ability in the same competition so we’ll never know

[@harveywolfe8787]

She won the short program at this event on name alone. This wasnt even any better than Claudia Leistner who was only 8th in the short, and probably worse than Kira Ivanova who was 6th in the short. Shame on your christopher1980 for your bias and justifying her undeserved win in the short.

[@mjji21]

she's a great competitor but no grace as a dancer at all

[@TheBob1901]

Lousy flying sit spin - she looked like she was struggling to rotate at all on that spin.

[@greginspace64]

. . . overdrive to bring her second mark up to match Sumners'. It also didn't help her cause at the time that she and Zayak were comparable in the figures while Sumners was stronger. What really made the two Olympic golds possible for Witt was her third place finishes in the figures in both 84 and 88; she was usually around 5th.

[@bendonna]

oh, I have no problem with her winning the long, that was the performance of her life, I was surprised to see how bad this short program was, and how lacking her technique really was compared to a Thomas...I think Debi's hand down caused for some strange marks in the short

[@victoriagill3337]

bendonna believe it was a statutory 0.4 deduction for an element not being completed at the time. So Debi’s max technical marks should theoretically have been 5.6......🤔

[@bendonna]

yes it was just plain bad, her landings were all shaky and she disguised them with hops, and the spins were bad...clearly they wanted debi in 7th for this reason

[@bendonna]

Debi beat her in 1986. and they were both excellent skaters.

[@MrOu83]

@mhughes- - I was in Cincinnati as well for the '87 Worlds. I arrived the morning of the ladies' short program. I attended a couple of the ladies practices for the long program. There was a single one that was standing room only. There were thousands of empty seats at those practices. If you or anybody else stood,it was because you elected to do so, and not because of a shortage of seats.

[@Ggirl91]

@Ggirl91 actually watching it again...looks like she was trying to catch her foot for a haircutter

[@hilljacknutjob]

5.5, 5.0 IMO

[@shottut]

Drug cheat...