Quotes from Past Winter Olympics Athletes : Katarina Witt

Good morning to those of you in Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

Since Bob Costas, the American host of the 2014 Winter Olympics, on NBC told us that social media was on fire with mentions of the women's figure skating results yesterday in which Adelina Sotnikova of Russia upset previous Olympic gold medalist Kim Yuna of South Korea (alas we just discovered we didn't spell her name right on the labels; we'll blame Pyongyang).

So, we thought this would be a good way to get hits on our blog! Yuna got silver; Carolina Kostner of Italy got bronze. And. Gracie Gold of the United States may want to hide in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Bhutan as she came in fourth, which is apparently very difficult for Olympic athletes to deal with.

Our quote tonight/today is from Katarina Witt, who won two gold medals in figure skating in both the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and 1988 Calgary Olympics. Interestingly enough, with her first win, Witt won a gold medal for a country which no longer exists, East Germany, in a country, that no longer exists, Yugoslavia (Sarajevo is now the capital of Bosnia).

Witt raised eyebrows when she posed nude for "Playboy" in 1998, the issue became only the second time, the men's adult magazine completely sold out. The first time was for an issue with Marilyn Monroe.

Witt also headed an unsuccessful bid for Munich to get the 2018 Winter Olympics, which would have made the German city the first one to host both the summer and winter games (Munich hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics).

Here is Witt's quote, she is now 48 years old:

"When I get up, I have a cup of coffee, surf the Internet, and then do a half-hour run."

http://en.katarina-witt.de/

Olympics Top Ten List (2 of 10): The Americans

Here are a list of ten American athletes competing at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia; some have already competed and some have not.

For a list of ten more Americans at the Olympics, go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com


1) Erin Hamlin (pictured top) Luge. Age 27. New Hartford, NY

2) Gus Kenworthy (pictured center). Free-style skiing. Telluride, Colo.

3) Heather Lynn Richardson (pictured bottom). Speed-skating. Age 24. High Point, NC.

4) Andy Newell. Cross-country skiing. Weston, Vermont.

5) Gracie Gold. Figure Skating. Age 18. Newton, Mass.

6) Justin Olsen. Bob-sledding. Age 26. San Antonio, Tex.

7) Lanny Barnes. Women's Biathlon. Age 31. Durango, Colo.

8) Jeremy Abbott. Figure Skating. Age 28. Aspen, Colo.

9) Mikaela Siffrin. Women's Alpine Skiing. Age 18. East Burke, Vermont.

10) Aaron Blunck. Free-style skiing. Age 17. Crested Butte, Colo.

http://www.teamusa.org/

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

http://erinhamlin.com/

http://usspeedskating.org/

UPDATE 02/11/14: Kudos to Erin Hamlin; she won bronze in women's luge and she is the first American to ever medal in the Olympics at the sport. Hamlin can also been in the United Airlines tv spot that is running during the games.