Only with Passion: Figure Skating's Most Winning Champion on Competition and Life

I read over this book in the waiting room of my Dentist's office. All in all I think this book is a good guide for parents of aspiring skaters. On a personal note one has to really ask if it is worth sacrificing a childhood for a medal?. These skaters have to train relentlessly for years.In the process they miss out so much of childhood which when lost can never be replaced. I have no children of my own but given what I saw during the whole Lillehammer Nancy Kerrigan / Tonya Harding scandal someone needs to watch over these young athletes so they do not lose contact with reality. I wish Ms. Witt had the courage to write more about her life in the former East German sports machine as it is especially relevant today when we read about athletes and doping scandals. I think Ms Witt like so many of the former Communist Bloc athletes were products of a system that treated them like racehorses to be bred and trained. Many had health problems in later life due to the strange performance enhancing drugs given them. Ms. Witt was hosting a TV show in Germany called "The OSTALGIE Show ". Ostalgie is term used by Germans as nostalgia for the good aspects of life under the old regime. I wonder if Ms. Witt has read "Faust's Gold: Inside the East German Doping Machine". The problem with nostalgia is no matter what the past is always better because one can be sentimental about the good and forget the evil.

Tear your eyes away from the winter spectacle of the Turin Olympics and treat yourself to multiply talented skating superstar Katarine Witt's most intimate memories. She tells them all to a young girl whose name she kindly changes to "Jasmine," a young girl who comes to her in need of advice. Witt sees Jasmine as a version, perhaps, of her younger self, the self that grew up behind the Iron Curtain, indeed behind the Berlin Wall only to become a pawn of the feared Stasi. As Jasmine spends a week luxuriating in the presence of the adored Katarina, she asks her mentor a series of penetrating, even probing questions and these questions, together with the Delphic replies Katarina makes in response, form the backbone of this wise, witty and winning little book. Some may say, it feels like only about 30,000 words, far too short for a book costing $23.50, but i say, it was just the right length. Jasmine asks about dating, and of course Katarina, as one of the most beautiful women in competitive sports, or indeed on Planet Earth, has plenty to say about it. Did you know the she once dated East German rock singer Ingo? In fact he was her first serious boyfriend; they met at a "youth festival" and fell madly in love. Those European "youth festivals" sound like fun. If I'm correct, that is where ABBA met each other a bit further north! Anyhow the government soon separated the young lovers. Jasmine then asks Katarina if it is true she once dated "McGyver"! Yes, she uses the name McGyver, almost as if she could not remember the actor's name who played him! (Richard Dean Anderson.) Instead of getting huffy, Katarina smiles sadly and reflects on how neither she nor Anderson were willing to move to the other's continent and that killed the romance, which however was quite "intense." What's little known is that McGyver himself (RDA as his fans call him) isn't a bad skater himself! In love, Witt advises,"if you want to become really serious, to have the relationship work, then somebody has to play second violin." Doesn't she sound charming and old world, where we in California might say, "second fiddle"? Katarina also discusses her famous nude appearance in PLAYBOY. And she puts it in context, the context of the way that in Europe, particularly her country, nudity is natural. Until she was sixteen she walked around topless everywhere. Reading her life this way, you realize that an appearance in PLAYBOY was just like breathing in and breathing out for Katarina Witt. Ahe is magnificent, the Princess Caroline of Monaco of the ice world. Long may she reign, in the USA at any rate, for she admits that in the US audiences are warm and love an old skater, whereas in Europe the attitude is much more, you're old, get off the ice. In America, she says, she was shocked to see Dorothy Hamill still feted and hailed and worshipped by audiences even in her late forties! Wouldn't happen in East Germany, Hamill would be relegated to cooking strudel for the

I found this book to be a fascinating look into the life of a remarkably strong and independent woman. It isn't gossipy, but it is honest and unapologetic about what it was like to grow up as an elite athlete in East Germany and to have to compete with the expectations of a country on your shoulders. The format, in which Witt gives advice to a young skater who is going through some of the same things Witt went through as a teenager, is unusual, but it worked for me. Witt can be funny, observant, and revealing about her own insecurities and failures in love. But she is a strong woman who seldom second guesses herself, and is a pretty amazing role model for young women athletes today.

A book in English from this legendary skater whose celebrity transcends her sport is long overdue, and this one is a most welcome treat. While not strictly autobiographical, it feels like an extended, intimate conversation, and Witt is remarkably candid about her life experiences and opinions. Swift ably captures his co-author's voice, as he has done to great effect in his other works. This is a thoroughly pleasurable read for the skating fan, and should not be missed by anyone who admires strong, independent women.