Quotes By Katarina Witt

I started the class late. The teacher said I would have to learn as much in half a year that the others learned in a year. I did it.

I learned not to depend on other people. I needed support, but it's you who has to go out and deliver.

I don't want to compete. I want to skate for the joy. I get so nervous in competition. I get always sick. I had pressures enough in my life from skating.

It's not like I didn't do anything for 10 years and chose a new profession. I've been on the ice a lot. I'm not an outsider.

Sometimes, success almost haunts you. You want to be the best at everything you do and know you have to work hard.

Competitions make me nervous. When I go out on the ice, I just think about my skating and not, 'I have to do this to win.' I forget it is a competition.

Figure skating is a mixture of art and sport.

Every man prefers to look at a well-shaped woman instead of a rubber ball.

Sometimes I even now feel like a stranger in my country. But I knew there would be problems because I had seen the world as a skater. And now? A lot of people in eastern Germany have lost jobs, rents went up, food costs went up, unemployment went to 20 percent. Freedom is good, but it is not easy.

When I get up, I have a cup of coffee, surf the Internet, then do a half-hour run.

Skating taught me to set a goal and to block out other things and just focus on this one thing.

I was the very first athlete in East Germany allowed to go professional.

I was an athlete. And I proved I didn't win just because I was pretty. I was good, too.

I'm the sort of person who needs a big mountain in front of me to climb.

I never had a serious injury that kept me out of a big competition. Now everyone has injuries - to their feet or their knees or their backs.

Almost nothing is presented to you on a silver platter. You have to really work for it.

The desire to really compete again has been there for a long time.

When you're young, you don't think very far ahead. You just think in terms of the next day, the next week, the next competition. You don't think about injuries that could threaten your long-term health.

Too many times women try to be competitive with each other. We should help support each other, rather than try to be better than each other.

I hope that I can maintain my skating as long as possible.

It's hard work to make a four-minute program look effortless and elegant.

I can't say, 'It doesn't matter if you win or lose.' It's not true. You go in to win.

As an athlete, you choose your sport and are drawn into it but your passion should never be driven by fame and fortune but a desire to create something special that people will always remember.

I never really like to skate in an empty ice rink; I always need the attention of an audience.

I want to see sunrises in the mountains. You never get to see such things enough in a lifetime. I want to see more.

Money was never the motivation. It never should be in sports.

When you see the audiences and the smiling faces at the shows it really makes up for the work that you put in. I have a job I really love so whatever hecticness comes up - I'll just deal with it.

When I go out on the ice, I just think about my skating. I forget it is a competition.

When you reach a certain level, you live in a bubble when all you think, dream and breathe is becoming the best athlete in the world.