Calgary 1988, XV Olympic Winter Games. Women's figure skating: eventual gold medallist Katarina WITT of the German Democratic Republic performs in the free programme. Credit: Getty Images/R. MACKSON

Born: 3 December 1965

Birthplace: Karl-Marx-Stadt (Germany)

Nationality: Germany

Sport: Skating

ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Sarajevo 1984

Calgary 1988

Lillehammer 1994

AWARDS

Olympic medals:

Gold: 2

Other results:

World Championships

Gold: 4 (84, 85, 87, 88)

Silver: 2 (82, 86)

Repeat Figure Skating Champion

At the 1984 Sarajevo Games, Katarina Witt won the women's figure skating gold medal by defeating two world champions, Rosalynn Sumners and Elaine Zayak. In fact, Witt is the only woman to win an Olympic singles championship after placing lower than second in the previous year's world championship (she was fourth). Witt's victory was a narrow one. In the free skating stage, she won the first place votes of five judges, while four voted for Sumners. Four years later in Calgary, Witt won an even tighter contest. She actually lost the free skate to Elizabeth Manley, but earned the gold medal based on her performances in the compulsory figures and the short program. Witt was the first repeat winner in women's figure skating since Sonja Henie. She returned to the Olympics in 1994. Although she placed only seventh, she enchanted the audience with a moving tribute to Sarajevo, the city where she had won her first gold medal, but which was now engulfed in a brutal civil war.