Event Preview: Witt still skates with passion

Katarina Witt had never before heard the sports phrase "lost a step," but the two-time Olympic figure skating champion, now 37, quickly got the meaning and answered that it is indeed the case with her.

"I'm not putting on the same performance as I did in the Olympics," said Witt, who took gold in both 1984 and 1988. "I've given up a lot of jumps, but that comes with the territory. ... I still have strength and speed."

And she still has her artistry, which is what she always has been best known for anyway. She'll have the proper stage on which to show it off when she comes to Mellon Arena tonight with the rest of the cast of Stars on Ice.

"I think you try to balance it [artistry and athleticism]," Witt said. "As a young skater you are more excited about the jumps. As an older skater you have more passion for the performance, and that's where I'm at."

Where she isn't, is close to retirement.

"Sometimes, yeah, it crosses my mind," she said. "But I'll try to put it off as long as I can because I really love it. It's rare to have a profession you enjoy so much. I am very lucky.

"Sometimes you feel tired and have aches and pains, and the travel is hard. But the majority of the time you feel strong and very healthy. The excitement of being out there and performing helps you overcome things. I'd like to keep going as long as possible, because there are still things I'd like to achieve. That's why I keep going."

Considering her resume, it seems impossible that there are still goals she wishes to fulfill on the ice. She has been skating since she was a 5-year-old at the Sport Club Chemnitz in Staaken, located in what was then Communist East Germany.

As in all Eastern Bloc nations, East German elite athletes spent virtually every minute training, sacrificing family and private life, and Witt was only 9 when she was sent to study with the famous skating coach Jutta Muller. She did her nation proud, winning four world championships to go with her Olympic gold.

After an international tour with other Olympic and world champions in 1989, she teamed with American Brian Boitano, the 1988 men's Olympic champion, to tour North America with editions of "Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt Skating" from 1990 to '92.

She also made a competitive comeback to skate in the 1994 Olympics in Norway, then skated for Stars on Ice from the following fall through part of 1997. She also competed in and won the Legends' Figure Skating Challenge in 1996 and was second in the 1998 Challenge of Champions. She rejoined Stars on Ice last year.

Witt also has skated in and produced a number of televised ice skating shows in both the United States and Europe.

"I still want to produce more skating specials because I like producing shows," she said, adding that she wants to skate in them as well.

"Choreography is so much nicer when you are out there than when you are standing on the ice," she said. "I always have a choreographer; I have one help me make my vision come true. That's one of my strengths: I'm able to work with a lot of strong people together rather than think I can do everything myself. I'm good at listening. If someone has a better idea, I go for it."

Witt's agent splits the work of her off-ice businesses with her. They include a fitness book in Germany, a line of jewelry in Europe and anti-aging products called "She's So Pure." She also has appeared in movies and TV programs.