The Forgotten Champions
Jocelyn
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
PosterBoy
"Jocelyn" <nonn...@aol.communique> wrote in message
news:20010629232123...@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.
Dave Amorde
>
> 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)
>
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-
Jocelyn
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"?
> Have you tried the internet?
Yep - zip except for historical results. Found some on Poetsch from
figure-skating.com
> Checked Skatabase?
I'm looking for more info than simply results.
> Did you read reports here on rssif during Worlds in Vancouver?
I did - did I miss something on these skaters from those reports?
> Have you google-searched rssif?
Nope - never thought of that. Will do.
Jocelyn
Jocelyn
>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. :-)
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)
Ruth Lafler
Jocelyn wrote:
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/interviews/blinterview_k.htm
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.html
--Ruth
Sandra Loosemore
> 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"?
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
michael farris
Jocelyn wrote:
> 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.
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 ...
> I can hardly find a wisp of information on:
>
> Annett Poetsch ('80 Oly champ)
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
> Beatrix Schuba ('72 Oly champ) - except she was great at figures
> Dagmar Lurz ('80 Oly bronze)
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)
>
> Christine Errath ('74 World champ)
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.
>
> Emi Watanabe ('79 World bronze)
> Dianne deLeeuw ('76 Oly silver) - except she used to compete for the US
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
Isiafs5
>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)
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
Dennis Holland
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
PosterBoy wrote:
> "Jocelyn" <nonn...@aol.communique> wrote in message
> news:20010629232123...@ng-fw1.aol.com...
> > 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)
> 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.
>
> Ummmmmm...........
> Do you have SKATING by Howard Bass? (Don't leave home without it.)
>
>
> Curious.
Lorrie Kim
Dennis Holland <dhol...@ncia.net> wrote:
>I think deLeeuw was at the recent PSA convention. I believe she was in a
>seminar that Lorrie Kim reviewed.
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
michael farris
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
michael 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/sport/0150/
-mike farris
michael 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
michael 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
michael 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
michael 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
MKLove1234
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
michael farris
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
michael farris
MKLove1234 wrote:
> 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.
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
michael farris
Jocelyn wrote:
> 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)
nice b/w picture at
http://home.t-online.de/home/scharfrichter/eklscb/christineerrath.html
-mike farris
Hattie54
I read this great book years ago . Was it written in the 1970's or early 80's ?
Harriet
Hattie54
>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.
>
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
Hattie54
>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)
Think she is coaching or did coach at her old rink in Hawthorne , which is near
LA, its a crummy area now .
Harriet
Donna Ice
Jocelyn wrote:
> 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:
> (other names snipped)
>
> Dianne deLeeuw ('76 Oly silver) - except she used to compete for the US
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
Trudi Marrapodi
It's really too bad, Mike. You came in here too late to see my post about
how Anett Poetsch was the only female skater who could really claim to
have "done a double Axel."
--
Trudi
The Poster With A Bag of Chips On Her Shoulder
Robert Dister
Donna Ice <cool...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
You're right. Deleeuw was an American who skated for the Netherlands,
probably so that she'd have an easier road to Worlds in the days of
Janet Lynn and Dorothy Hamill (of course, she was World Champion before
Hamill, so it's questionable how much she really needed that strategy.
Still, since skating could usually only have one top dog per country,
she may have avoided being routed into a perpetual silver medal at
Nationals if Dorothy had become the anointed one.) It's funny how she is
totally ignored in the US just because she chose to skate under another
flag, but she was as American as any of the other US ladies' champions.
The other forgotten person of US skating to my mind is two time World
Champion Tim Wood. You seldom ever hear him mentioned, and yet he was
one judge's vote away from being an Olympic Champion. I'd say that
relative to his accomplishments he's the most ignored American skater of
all time.
As far as Dagmar Lurz, I remember my roommate and I dropping everything
to watch whenever she was on TV. We both thought she was the #1 eye
candy of the 1980 Olys. I'd love to see a picture of her from those days
to see if my aesthetics are still the same. :)
sleep deprived
Oh, wow, in general, I love these May-December relationships (as long
as the women are the "December")--but isn't Anette old enough to be
Rauschenbach's mother?
Just wondering...
sleep deprived
I remember watching/reading a small news story back in the early 80s
that Lurz had completed med school and was aspired to become an
orthopedic surgeon. If I remember correctly, she wanted to do so not
so much because of her love/concern for skating/skater-related health
issues but of her experience after a horrible trrafic accident that
almost ended her skating career.
> Emi Watanabe ('79 World bronze)
Reportedly, ISU's own instructional/judging manual used to state that
Emi Watanabe had the best/most ideal double Axel in business. After
her retirement, she apparently starred in her own soap opera--which
only lasted a season. I think she is now a "generic" TV star who does
occasional game shows, talk shows etc.
Lois recently reminded us that these two skaters were great rivals
back then. Lurz often placed above Watanabi on the World/Olympic
level, mostly due to her strength in school figures--but Watanabi was
very strong in SP/FS. e.g., Watanabi would have gotten silver behind
Fratianne in 1980 (Dortmund), w/o the figures.
Ellyn Kestnbaum
> Oh, wow, in general, I love these May-December relationships (as long
> as the women are the "December")--but isn't Anette old enough to be
> Rauschenbach's mother?
Anett Poetzsch is 40 or 41. She was 19 during the 1980 Olympics.
If you mean Claudia Rauschenbach . . . well, duh, she is her mother.
-Ellyn
Jocelyn
>Champion Tim Wood. You seldom ever hear him mentioned, and yet he was
>one judge's vote away from being an Olympic Champion. I'd say that
>relative to his accomplishments he's the most ignored American skater of
>all time.
:-) I haven't gotten to the men, pairs, or dance teams yet!!!
Jocelyn (who is profiling skaters for a historical site, if anyone was
wondering)
Margaret Burwell
michael farris (m...@amu.edu.pl) writes:
> Jocelyn wrote:
>> Dianne deLeeuw ('76 Oly silver) - except she used to compete for the US
>
> 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)
I lived in the Netherlands during the 70s and I remember seeing Dianne
being interviewed on Dutch TV. She spoke passable Dutch with a very
noticable English accent, just like I did.
Marg
nondescript
What's with the gratuitous aggression!? Maybe you are kidding, but
if you aren't, what part of the original posting provoked your comment
on Claudia "Duh" Rausen-whomever? Maybe you don't really know what
the term "May-December relationships" refers to...
*************************
EKest...@yahoo.com (Ellyn Kestnbaum) wrote...
Ellyn Kestnbaum
> if you aren't, what part of the original posting provoked your comment
> on Claudia "Duh" Rausen-whomever? Maybe you don't really know what
> the term "May-December relationships" refers to...
I admit that I don't know how old Axel Rauschenbach is, but I do know
that he was competing at Worlds in the late 1980s, so I would guess
about 30 or so. I would hardly consider 41 to be "old enough to be his
mother" . . . or "December."
-Ellyn
Sandy Reynolds
SRR
Jocelyn wrote:
> 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