In researching historical stuff for figure skating, it astounded me how little
information is available on certain skaters - namely non-US, no longer
skating-professionally skaters.

I can hardly find a wisp of information on:

Annett Poetsch ('80 Oly champ)
Beatrix Schuba ('72 Oly champ) - except she was great at figures
Dagmar Lurz ('80 Oly bronze)
Christine Errath ('74 World champ)
Emi Watanabe ('79 World bronze)
Dianne deLeeuw ('76 Oly silver) - except she used to compete for the US
Karen Magnussen ('73 World champ, '72 Oly silver)
Hana Maskova ('68 Oly bronze)
Sjoukje Dijkstra ('64 Oly champ)

Except for Dorothy Hamill's Olympic victory and Janet Lynn, 1970-1980 is a
complete black hole in terms of archived skating history.  The 50s had Albright
and Heiss, the 60s had Fleming, the 80s had Zayak, Sumners and Thomas, and the
90s has the internet :-)  Anyone have any information on the skaters above?
I'm looking especially for photos (surprising I can't find ANY photos of two
past Oly champs in all of my skating history books).  Thanks.

Jocelyn

news:20010629232123.08315.00002149@ng-fw1.aol.com...

   Ummmmmm...........
   Do you have SKATING by Howard Bass?  (Don't leave home without it.)
   Have you tried the internet?
   Checked Skatabase?
   Did you read reports here on rssif during Worlds in Vancouver?
   Have you google-searched rssif?

Curious.

You have a point with some of these skaters, but two names struck me as
being odd members: Karen Magnussen and Dianne deLeeuw. Both have many
stories and articles written about them; both are still active in the
skating world. I will admit that your local library is probably not the
best place to conduct such research, but there might be one or two
people around here who could steer you in the right direction.  :-)

-Dave-

Nope... never heard of it nor have I seen it in bookstores.  Any good?  How's
Ben Wright's book (which I've been lusting after but haven't gotten my hands on
quite yet) - is it "Skating in America"?

Yep - zip except for historical results.  Found some on Poetsch from
figure-skating.com

I'm looking for more info than simply results.

I did - did I miss something on these skaters from those reports?

Nope - never thought of that.  Will do.

Jocelyn

Ok, you caught me... they were kind of a last minute addition.  :-)  Isn't
deLeeuw coaching out west, Las Vegas or something?

Jocelyn (absent minded at 21)

Did a yahoo search on deLeeuw and got some hits, including an interview with
Paula on about.com:

http://figureskating.about.com/sports/figureskating/library/interview...

I did a yahoo search on Karen Magnussen and got quite a few hits, including
the following article:

http://www.canoe.ca/SlamCanadianSkatingChampionships1997/cc_mag_feb7....

--Ruth

Yes, that's the title.  It's interesting, but it is really a history
of the USFSA, and not of skating in general.  There are small B&W
photos of a number of prominent US skaters scattered throughout the
book, but don't expect to find much on international skaters here.
There's a lot of discussion of USFSA politics (what happened at
governing council each year, and who was elected to hold what
offices), and reporting of the results of Nationals and other
competitions, but comparatively little discussion of the actual
skating at these events.  I'd be far more interested in the latter.

-Sandra

Quick note in case you don't make it to the end of this post: If you know German
(or know anyone who does) you might start checking out German language web sites
for info on the German speaking skaters ...

Didn't she appear in a minor role in Witt's Carmen on Ice? She was a little like a
figures centered Witt (same country, same coach, same costumes I time or two I
think), not the most consistent or elegant skater (but she had a great layback
ISTR) but had a never-give-an-inch competitive streak. I have _no_ idea what
happened to her after the Oly's or since reunification (I saw about 10 seconds of
her on German TV once, but came in right at the end, her 80 free skate dress (and
maybe her 80 Oly gold medal) is (or was) on display in some German figure skating
museum

all I know about her, from Dortmund, after skating became a doctor (I think) a few
years ago I saw a snippet on German TV about her with a minute or so of her 80's
Oly free skate (all I remember about her skating is that she was figures
specialist, was very erratic with jumps and had a great scratch spin)

Didn't she breat her leg after winning in 74, I seem to remember reading that it
was a huge accomplishment for her to win bronze in 76 Olys because of something
like that.

No, she competed _against_ the US, she (or her parents) had dual citizenship or
something and she competed _for_ the Netherlands (I don't know if she ever lived
there, could ever speak the language or anything like that)

-mike farris

My suggestion would be to find and add the country for each skater.  You may
find information by a web search (ww.dogpile.com) with the country named
combined with the athlete.  Also, I have plenty of immigrant friends, so I may
be able to ask around about skaters from some of the countries.

Sling Skate

Magnussen lives and coaches in B.C.  She wrote a daily column for one of the
Vancouver papers during 2001Worlds.  I think she worked with Keyla Ohs, not as
her main coach.  She lived in Massachuseetts for many years, married to a
musician Tony Cella (?sp), wrangled with Skate Canada (CFSA) about requirements
for coaches.

I think deLeeuw was at the recent PSA convention.  I believe she was in a
seminar that Lorrie Kim reviewed.

I have several of the books by Bass.  He covered skating in 70s and early 80s.
A journalist for a newspaper in the UK.  I'm sure the books are long out of
print but you could try Amazon or old bookstores.

Dennis

In article <3B3DBB92.7006A...@ncia.net>,
Dennis Holland  <dholl...@ncia.net> wrote:

        Yes, she discussed "Business Aspects of Coaching."  From what I
saw, she's thoroughly immersed in the coaching life, and quite dedicated.  
She mentioned what a big difference it was from her days training and
touring.
        Speaking of my reviews, I thought I posted the one about sports
psychology q and a, but it hasn't shown up, so I'll repost.  Apologies if
it's a duplication.

                                        Lorrie Kim
                                        lor...@plover.com

Found a German language profile (with b/w pictures of her then and now) at:

http://www.svz.de/sport/wiedererkannt/seyfert.html

-mike farris

Apparently she was/is? married (to someone names Rauschenbach and her daughter,
Claudia is a figure skater too. Full link at:

http://www.berlinonline.de/wissen/berliner_zeitung/archiv/2001/0108/s...

-mike farris

You (or at least I) learn something every day. Unless my German is 20 times worse than
I thought, Witt and Poetzsch were sisters-in-law, because Poetzsch's husband was
Witt's brother, Axel Rausenbauch. The last name difference? I don't know, the divorce
rate in Germany is _very_ high, so they might only share one parent, who knows. But
they're divorced (typical!) now and with other people according to this snippet from
the German press (actually a question to Witt in an interview).

full story at

http://www.super-illu.de/enter/leute/01813/2/sub.shtml

-mike farris

There are short biographies on line of a number of them at

http://centaurus.munzinger.de/ansicht/100/05/0524/100052426t.html

(this is the page to get to Beatrix Schuba's biography)

some problems are that the biographies are apparently short, long on statistics and
short on other stuff, the big problem is it's a pay-site (you pay for each
biography you download, sports figures cost 6.14 Euros (I forget the exact rate
now, it's a little of $5.00 I think)

Oh, and it's all in German (so you'll need to Babble fish the results or hire a
translator if you sprechen kein Deutsch)

-mike farris

Picture of her in October, 2000 at some sort of cheesy Guiness world record things
she's at the bottom of the page with a real tall guy at

http://www.klub-der-grossen.de/presse/z021000.htm

-mike farris

It ain't much, but there's a picture of her (bei der Pflicht 'at duty' in German or in
other words, skating a school figure) at the 67 WC';s in Vienna.

at:

http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.e/e433403.htm

-mike farris

Periodically International Figure Skating does short profiles of former
champions.  They've done several on Austrian and German skaters in the past.

Anett Poetzsch was married to Axel Witt at one time.  They were divorced, but
had a daughter, Claudia, who is a pairs skater in Germany.  

Anett remarried, to former German pairs skater Axel Rauschenbach.  Rauschenbach
was the former partner of Mandy Woetzel, before she teamed with Steuer.  The
Rauschenbachs have a young daughter of their own as well.  Anett's daughter
Claudia skates under her stepfather's name, so if you try to find information
about her, you need to look under the name "Rauschenbach."

I believe the magazine profile I saw said Anett still skates periodically and
does some coaching as well in Germany...

--Michelle

Very long article, in Czech, with several pictures devoted to the late skater
(apparently she died in the spring of 1972) at:

http://www.ringier.cz/reflex/12004/00561274.htm

-mike farris

Yikes! It never occurred to me that there were two Rauschenbachs ... (let alone two
Axel's not a popular name I thought)

But still it's a great trivia question "Which two Olympic gold medalist figure
skaters were once sisters-in-law?"

-mike farris

nice b/w picture at

http://home.t-online.de/home/scharfrichter/eklscb/christineerrath.html

-mike farris

I read this great book years ago . Was it written in the 1970's or early 80's ?

Harriet

Thanks for that answer .I only read one or two of his books .As for Annett
Poetsch, wasn't she once married to Katt Witt's brother ? I think Katt has one
niece and that Poetsch re- married and has another daughter . One of those two
daughters was or did skate .

Harriet

Think she is coaching or did coach at her old rink in Hawthorne , which is near
LA, its a crummy area now .

Harriet

I thought it was the other way around.  She lived and trained in the US (and in
fact was US-born, or at least US-raised) but competed for The Netherlands, based on
her Dutch ancestry.  I remember my parents were tickled by the fact that a
Dutch-American would compete for The Netherlands.
--
Peace and Joy,
Donna
another Dutchie born in the US to non-US born parents