Katarina’s just too sexy’

Press, 25 February 1988, Page 32

Katarina’s just too sexy’

NZPA-AFP Calgary The East German figure skating beauty, Katarina Witt’s, sensuous, daring and revealing costumes have gone too far, according to the Canadian coach, Peter Dunfield. He claims the 21-year-old beauty, whom he says flirts shamelessly with the audience the moment she steps on to the ice, is just too sexy. “We are here to skate in a dress, not a G-string,” said Dunfield, coach of the Canadian champion, Elizabeth Manley. “The costumes are getting wilder and wilder.

“Sometimes it is frustrating because the first thing people notice is Katarina’s costume. For months after she skates, the question that people ask is, ‘Did you see Katarina’s costume?’,” he said. But Witt is unrepentant about her costumes. “This is part of ice skating, especially grace and beauty. I think every man prefers looking at a well built woman rather than someone who looks like a rubber ball,” said Witt, whose battle with America’s Debi Thomas for the figure skating title was sold out months ago. The East German girl,

whose fresh faced beauty was enough for an American cosmetic firm to offer her a SUSI million contract to promote its wares, is very much the belle of the Olympics.

Everywhere she goes here she is pursued by eager male fans, trying to get close to the girl who happily admits she enjoys promoting the image of being a fantasy on ice. She spends hours perfecting her bubbly, smiling image to win over not only the mind but the heart of the judges. From the moment she arrives on the ice she will focus on one man in the crowd and play to him as if they were two lovers, alone.

It is a trick she has been taught and she exploits it to the full, with the aid of her stunning, skimpy, costumes.

Only once did one of her low cut costumes get her into trouble. In Paris last year, her outfit proved to be a little too low cut and she exposed more of herself than she intended. But Witt is more thansimply a beauty on ice — she is one of the greatest figure skaters.