On December 3rd 1965 in Staaken, (East) Germany figure skater Katarina Witt was born

Regarded as one of the greatest Figure skaters of all time; Witt was dominate throughout the 1980’s. Representing the German Democratic Republic, Witt won six straight European Championships between 1983-1988; a record matched only by Sonja Henie, She won four World Championships in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988.

She won Gold medals at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and the 1988 Calgary Olympics becoming only the second woman, again after Sonja Henie, to successfully defend her Olympic title

She retired from competition after the ’88 Games, but made a breif comeback to compete, representing the now reunified Federal Republic of Germany at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. She finished in seventh place.

Nowadays she occasionally appears on TV and movies, and does figure skating commentary for both English and German broadcasts