Karin Enke

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Karin Enke

Karin Enke in 1983
Personal information
Born (1961-06-20) 20 June 1961
Dresden, East Germany
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 72 kg (159 lb)
Sport
Sport Speed skating
Club SC Einheit Dresden

Karin Enke (born 20 June 1961), also known as Karin Busch(-Enke), Karin Kania(-Enke), and Karin Enke-Richter, is a former speed skater, one of the most dominant ones of the 1980s.

Short biography

Karin Enke started her sport career as a figure skater at the club SC Einheit Dresden. Representing East-Germany she came in 9th place at the European Figure Skating Championships in 1977. Later she changed to speed skating. Dominant on all distances (being reigning World Allround Champion and World Sprint Champion, and having won German Single Distance Championships titles on all 5 distances in 1983), Enke was the favourite for all 4 distances at the 1984 Winter Olympics of Sarajevo, but she won "only" 2 gold and 2 silver medals.[1] At the World Cup, Enke had 21 Single Distance victories, but won only one overall World Cup. She retired from speed skating after the 1987/1988 season.

Born as Karin Enke, she married in 1981 and competed as Karin Busch during the 1981/1982 winter. The marriage did not last long and during the 1982/1983 and 1983/1984 winters, she competed as Karin Enke again. After marrying her longtime former trainer Rudolf Kania in 1984, she competed as Karin Kania for the rest of her speed skating career. After her career had ended, she divorced and married again and became Karin 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. Commentators were apt to make remarks like "Karin Kania is the skater we knew as Karin Enke last season" and some commentators even, half-jokingly, made remarks like "I wonder what her name will be next season". To alleviate the confusion, Enke kept her maiden name as the first part of her last name after her third marriage, just like Gunda Kleemann (also known as Gunda Niemann and Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann) kept Niemann (the name of her first husband) as the first 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.

Doping use

On 3 January 2010, Giselher Spitzer, a German sport historian and researcher of the Humboldt University in Berlin, revealed in the Dutch TV documentary Andere Tijden ('Other Times') that back in 1984, Karin Enke had been prepared with doping. He based his claim on Stasi-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]

Medals

Karin Enke at the European Championships in 1983

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 (1,000 m)
1984 (1,500 m)
1984 (500 m)
1984 (3,000 m)
1988 (1,000 m)
1988 (1,500 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 (1,000 m) 1986 (500 m)
1986 (1,500 m)
1988 (1,000 m)
1986 (3,000/5,000 m)
1988 (500 m)
1988 (1,500 m)
1988 (3,000/5,000 m)
European Allround 1981
1982
1983
German Allround 1982
1983
German Sprint 1984
1986
1983
German Single Distance 1980 (1,000 m)
1983 (500 m)
1983 (1,000 m)
1983 (1,500 m)
1983 (3,000 m)
1983 (5,000 m)
1984 (500 m)
1984 (1,000 m)
1984 (1,500 m)
1986 (1,000 m)
1987 (500 m)
1988 (1,000 m)
1988 (1,500 m)
1980 (1,500 m)
1986 (500 m)
1986 (1,500 m)
1986 (3,000 m)
1988 (500 m)
1980 (500 m)

World records

Over the course of her career, Enke skated 10 world records:

DistanceResultDateLocation
Mini combination168.27114 February 1982Inzell
1,500 m2:03.429 February 1984Sarajevo
1,000 m1:18.8422 February 1986Karuizawa
Sprint combination160.06023 February 1986Karuizawa
1,500 m2:02.236 March 1986Inzell
3,000 m4:18.0221 March 1986Medeo
500 m39.5221 March 1986Medeo
1,500 m1:59.3022 March 1986Medeo
Mini combination168.38722 March 1986Inzell
1,000 m1:18.115 December 1987Calgary

Personal records

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]

DistanceResultDateLocationWR
500 m39.2422 February 1988Calgary39.39
1,000 m1:17.7026 February 1988Calgary1:18.11
1,500 m1:59.3022 March 1986Medeo2:02.23
3,000 m4:17.765 December 1987Calgary4:16.85
5,000 m7:39.8222 March 1986Medeo7:31.45
Small combination168.27222 March 1986Medeo171.760
Mini combination168.27114 February 1982Inzell168.387
Sprint combination160.06023 February 1986Karuizawa161.120

Note that Enke's personal record on the 500 m was not a world record because Bonnie Blair skated 39.10 at the same tournament (the 1988 Winter Olympics). Enke's personal record on the 1,000 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.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Karin Enke-Kania. sports-reference.com
  2. "Raadsel rondom Van Gennip en DDR-vrouwen opgelost" Sportweek, 3 januari 2010
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