POSTED: November 5th 2010
InDepth
Katarina Witt skates clear for Munich when it comes to putting athletes' case
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
LONDON: When it comes to talking up one of the great Olympic clichés – “putting the athletes first” – then Munich can underscore its 2018 credentials with unarguable class; bid chair Katarina Witt is one of the iconic figures of winter Games history.
Witt won two figure-skating golds plus four world and six European titles. But not only has she ‘walked the walk’ she can ‘talk the talk’ . . .as she did in this interview in London at the Global Sports Industry congress.
What do you mean when you talk now, as Munich bid chair, about the importance of the athletes?
When you are an athlete, this is not a cliché it is really what you feel. You concentrate only on your sport so when you go to the Games you don’t really care about anything else.
When you bid on behalf of a city you have to think about all the other aspects – tourists, the Olympic family, so many people. You need to offer something for everybody but, first of all, it’s the athletes. It’s the athletes and the individual stars who drive the Olympic scene and its most important they are well taken care of in the Olympic Village.
Pleasing them is very simple: just give them the best conditions. They don’t need anything else. Just their ‘team’ around them – coach, physio and so on - the event site which is the Olympic Village, the right food, enough sleep, workout space, a short distances to the competition site and a great comp site.
What if anything is wrong?
When you are at competition level, if there is something wrong you just have to deal with it and don’t fuss with it – because then it makes you even more crazy.
After all, if there is problem then you know that everybody else has to deal with it as well. If it’s the bad quality of ice then everyone else is skating on the same bad ice. If your bed has a bad mattress you know everybody else has back problems as well.
Athletes should be so tuned that you don’t let anything distract you after all the work you’ve put in.
So is preparing an Olympic bid like preparing as an Olympic athlete?
I spoke to Seb Coe about this a few months ago as I saw my role evolving. As it was clear Munich was were becoming a candidate city you forget the rest of your life to concentrate on this one thing so maybe this is similar to preparing as an athlete, yes: you want to gear yourself up for this one big event and for which you will live and breathe and fight.
It was nice to talk to Seb about it but it is also a journey you have to live for yourself. It’s like when your parents tell you: “Don’t do that.” Then, maybe 10 years later, you realise they were right! It’s like that. Of course it’s good to have people around whom you can ask for advice but you have to create your own experience.
You’re part of a team and it’s all a big team effort for us now getting ready for July 6 in Durban.
How has your role at the head of the Munich bid changed?
This is more in terms of what people see in Germany. I haven’t been seen so much there because I’ve been travelling – Vancouver, Dubai, Singapore, Acapulco where I did a lot of international relations work and met IOC members.
I’ve been always the chair internationally but over the last few weeks I’ve become more visible in Germany - and maybe for the media there. People in Germany have started wanting to know what’s going in Munich and Garmisch and how it’s coming together?
When Willy Bogner stepped down for health reasons I stepped into more of a visible role. But, as the weeks go by and we go on with this journey, I am also learning more about the movement and how to lead the bid better.
How do you justify trying to bring the winter Games to Europe for the second successive time?
ANSWER . . . IN PART TWO OF THIS INTERVIEW – COMING SHORTLY
Keywords · Katarina Witt · Munich 2018 · winter Olympics
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