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.jpg) Enke in 1983 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1961-06-20)20 June 1961 (age 64) |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Weight | 72 kg (159 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Speed skating |
| Club | SC Einheit Dresden |
Karin Voss (néeEnke, formerlyBusch,Kania andRichter; born 20 June 1961) is a formerspeed skater, one of the most dominant of the 1980s. She is a three-time Olympic gold medallist, winning the 500 metres in 1980, the 1000 metres in 1984 and the 1500 metres in 1984. She won a total of eight Olympic medals, representingEast Germany.
Karin Enke started her sport career as a figure skater at the club SC EinheitDresden. Representing East Germany she came in ninth place at theEuropean Figure Skating Championships in 1977. Later she changed to speed skating.Dominant on all distances (being reigningWorld Allround Champion andWorld Sprint Champion, and having won German Single Distance Championships titles on all five distances in 1983), Enke was the favourite for all four distances at the1984 Winter Olympics ofSarajevo, but she won "only" two gold and two silver medals.[1] At theWorld Cup, Enke had 21 single-distance victories, but won only one overall World Cup. She retired from speed skating after the 1987–88 season.
Born asKarin Enke, she married in 1981 and competed asKarin Busch during the 1981–82 winter. The marriage did not last long and during the 1982–83 and 1983–84 winters, she competed asKarin Enke again. After marrying her longtime former trainer Rudolf Kania in 1984, she competed asKarin Kania for the rest of her speed skating career. After her career had ended, she divorced and married again and becameKarin Enke-Richter.
Like several other female East German skaters who got married after the season had ended (and several of them more than once over the course of their careers), Enke caused some confusion among the speed skating public when she—a skater with a name unfamiliar to them—suddenly won major titles in her "first" season. To alleviate the confusion, Enke kept hermaiden name as thefirst part of her last name after her third marriage, just likeGunda Kleemann (also known asGunda Niemann andGunda Niemann-Stirnemann) keptNiemann (the name of her first husband) as thefirst part of her last name even after her divorce and both before and after her second marriage, which is unusual in most Western European countries.
On 3 January 2010, Giselher Spitzer, a German sport historian and researcher of theHumboldt University of Berlin, claimed in the Dutch TV documentaryAndere Tijden ('Other Times') that back in 1984, Karin Enke had been prepared with doping. He based his claim onStasi-documents, which were shown during the programme. Citation: "[Dem Arzt] war bekannt, dass Karin ENKE zu den Olympischen Spielen zu den ausgewählten Athleten gehörte, die mit erheblichen Mengen Testosteron und gleichzeitigen Gegenspritzen von Epitestosteron auf ihre Wettkämpfe vorbereitet würden." ("It was known to the medic, that Karin ENKE at the Olympic Games belonged to those athletes who were prepared for the Games with relevant measures of Testosteron and, synchronously, with contrasting measures of Epitosteron.").[2]
An overview of medals won by Enke at important championships she participated in, listing the years in which she won each:
| Championships | Gold medal | Silver medal | Bronze medal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympics | 1980 (500 m) 1984 (1000 m) 1984 (1500 m) | 1984 (500 m) 1984 (3000 m) 1988 (1000 m) 1988 (1500 m) | 1988 (500 m) |
| World Allround | 1982 1984 1986 1987 1988 | 1981 1983 | |
| World Sprint | 1980 1981 1983 1984 1986 1987 | 1982 1988 | |
| World Cup | 1986 (1000 m) | 1986 (500 m) 1986 (1500 m) 1988 (1000 m) | 1986 (3000/5000 m) 1988 (500 m) 1988 (1500 m) 1988 (3000/5000 m) |
| European Allround | 1981 1982 1983 | ||
| German Allround | 1982 1983 | ||
| German Sprint | 1984 1986 | 1983 | |
| German Single Distance | 1980 (1000 m) 1983 (500 m) 1983 (1000 m) 1983 (1500 m) 1983 (3000 m) 1983 (5000 m) 1984 (500 m) 1984 (1000 m) 1984 (1500 m) 1986 (1000 m) 1987 (500 m) 1988 (1000 m) 1988 (1500 m) | 1980 (1500 m) 1986 (500 m) 1986 (1500 m) 1986 (3000 m) 1988 (500 m) | 1980 (500 m) |
Over the course of her career, Enke skated 10world records:
| Distance | Result | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini combination | 168.271 | 14 February 1982 | Inzell |
| 1500 m | 2:03.42 | 9 February 1984 | Sarajevo |
| 1000 m | 1:18.84 | 22 February 1986 | Karuizawa |
| Sprint combination | 160.060 | 23 February 1986 | Karuizawa |
| 1500 m | 2:02.23 | 6 March 1986 | Inzell |
| 3000 m | 4:18.02 | 21 March 1986 | Medeo |
| 500 m | 39.52 | 21 March 1986 | Medeo |
| 1500 m | 1:59.30 | 22 March 1986 | Medeo |
| Mini combination | 168.387 | 22 March 1986 | Inzell |
| 1000 m | 1:18.11 | 5 December 1987 | Calgary |
To put these personal records in perspective, the last column (WR) lists the official world records on the dates that Enke skated her personal records.[1]
| Distance | Result | Date | Location | WR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 m | 39.24 | 22 February 1988 | Calgary | 39.39 |
| 1000 m | 1:17.70 | 26 February 1988 | Calgary | 1:18.11 |
| 1500 m | 1:59.30 | 22 March 1986 | Medeo | 2:02.23 |
| 3000 m | 4:17.76 | 5 December 1987 | Calgary | 4:16.85 |
| 5000 m | 7:39.82 | 22 March 1986 | Medeo | 7:31.45 |
| Small combination | 168.272 | 22 March 1986 | Medeo | 171.760 |
| Mini combination | 168.271 | 14 February 1982 | Inzell | 168.387 |
| Sprint combination | 160.060 | 23 February 1986 | Karuizawa | 161.120 |
Note that Enke's personal record on the 500 m was not a world record becauseBonnie Blair skated 39.10 at the same tournament (the1988 Winter Olympics). Enke's personal record on the 1000 m was not a world record either because (again at the same 1988 Winter Olympics)Christa Rothenburger skated 1:17.65 – 0.05 seconds faster.
