Katarina Witt - With Gold Came Celebrity

The eighteen-year-old East German skater became an instant celebrity, with a lot of attention paid to her sex appeal. Witt took it in stride, embracing the attention while training for the World Championships, which took place weeks after the Olympics. She even apologized publicly for not responding to each of the 35,000 fan letters she received after the Olympics, many of which included marriage proposals. Witt went on to win her first World gold medal in Ottawa, Canada, and repeated her gold success at the 1985 World Championships, in Tokyo, Japan. She also won the European Championships in 1984 and 1985.

Because Witt was such an accomplished athlete, and had become so because of her nation's Communist government, at no cost to her parents, she became a proud representative of the Communist system. In East Germany, she was known as "Katarina the Great." Unlike American or European skaters, skaters from Communist countries were indebted to their governments and were not allowed to perform publicly or accept endorsements that were not government approved. Communist athletes were even prohibited from traveling with their families to discourage defection. Witt's parents never saw her skate in competition.

Witt's Olympic and European and World Championship gold medals had firmly established her as the skater to beat. American skater Debi Thomas had placed fifth in Sarajevo, but took the 1986 World Championship from Witt. The upset began a determined rivalry between the two champions. It also stoked fires between East vs. West, Communism vs. Capitalism, among fans. Thomas was considered the better athlete, but Witt's showmanship, paired with her technical prowess, made it an even match. In a program choreographed to music from West Side Story, Witt regained her World Championship title from Thomas in March 1987.

The Witt-Thomas rivalry was a media focus of the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada. Ironically, each skater had unknowingly chosen the same music, from the opera Carmen for her long program. Witt skated a conservative program forsaking several triple jumps for doubles, and focusing more on flirting with the audience, and did not receive exceptionally high marks. Thomas skated an incredibly ambitious program, but not well enough. A few technical mistakes made way for Witt take the gold once again. A few weeks later, at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Witt regained the World gold from Thomas.