Tanja Szewczenko
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 Tanja Szewczenko in 2007 |
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| Country represented |  Germany |
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| Former country(ies) represented |  Ukraine |
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| Born | July 26, 1977 Düsseldorf, Germany |
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| Height | 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Tanja Szewczenko (born July 26, 1977, Düsseldorf, Germany) is a German figure skater and actress. She is the 1994 World bronze medalist and 1998 European bronze medalist.
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[edit] Biography
Tanja inherited her Ukrainian surname from her father. Her mother, Vera Küke, was a German from Russia. In 1994, at only 16 years old, Szewczenko won her first international competition, at the prestigious Nations Cup in Germany, defeating the reigning world champion Oksana Baiul. A few weeks later, she won her first national title, defeating the figure skating legend Katarina Witt. Her most prominent success occurred in the mid-nineties, when she won a bronze medal in the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships. After finishing 6th place at the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships, Szewczenko contracted a near-deadly combination of viral infections that took her out of competition for nearly two years.
She made a successful comeback in the fall of 1997, winning on home ice at Sparkassen Cup on Ice in Gelsenkirken, Germany over eventual World Champion, Irina Slutskaya. She went on to defeat former World Champion Chen Lu and eventual World Champion Maria Butyrskaya at the NHK Trophy in Nagano, Japan, and in doing so, earned a spot to the Grand Prix Final in Munich, Germany. She finished 2nd behind American Tara Lipinski in what is regarded as the greatest performance of her career.
Szewczenko was considered to have a shot at a medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano; unfortunately she contracted the flu which prevented her from competing.[1] Four years earlier at the Lillehammer Games, she collided with Oksana Baiul during warm-ups prior to the free skate.
Szewczenko also won a bronze medal at the 1998 European Figure Skating Championships in Milan, Italy. She also finished 9th at the 1998 World Figure Skating Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota later that year. Even if Szewczenko had a short career in figure skating, because of hers health problems, she remains the last German skater, in the ladies category medaled at the major events.
She posed for the German edition of Playboy magazine in April 1999 and March 2007.
Szewczenko officially retired from competitive figure skating in 2000 to concentrate on modelling and acting.
Beginning in 2002, Szewczenko played the role of Katinka "Kati" Ritter on the German soap opera "Unter Uns." Her last appearance on the soap was December 5, 2005.
From September 2006 until 2009, she acted in the German soap opera "Alles was zählt" on RTL Television. She played the role of Diana Sommer, an inline courier, who trained as a figure skater alongside the wealthy daughter of a fitness center mogul.[2] Norman Jeschke played her pair skating partner.[2] In January 2009, Szewczenko left the series to return to show skating, joining the "Holiday On Ice" show with Jeschke.
Szewczenko and Jeschke's daughter Jona Valentina was born on Friday 25 February 2011.[3][4]
[edit] Results
| Event | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-00 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympics | 6th | ||||||
| World Championships | 7th | 3rd | 6th | 9th | |||
| European Championships | 4th | 5th | 4th | 5th | 3rd | WD | |
| World Junior Championships | 3rd | ||||||
| German Championships | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| Champions Series Final | 2nd | ||||||
| Nations Cup | 8th | 1st | 3rd | 5th | 1st | ||
| NHK Trophy | 4th | 1st | |||||
| Karl Schäfer Memorial | 2nd | ||||||
| Skate Israel | 1st |
- WD = Withdrew
[edit] References
- ^ Washington Post: The Flu Plagues Olympics 19. February 1998 ("Germany's top-ranked figure skater, Tanja Szewczenko, withdrew from the Games before her event started. She had been sick with flu for more than a week and chose to return home to recuperate[…]")
- ^ a b Elfman, Lois (January 28, 2010). "Szewczenko rediscovers her love of skating". icenetwork.com. http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100128&content_id=7990196&vkey=ice_news. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
- ^ "Tanja Szewczenko ist Mama geworden [Tanja Szewczenko is a mother]" (in German). unterhaltung.t-online.de. February 26, 2011. http://unterhaltung.t-online.de/tanja-szewczenko-ist-mama-geworden/id_44634148/index. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
- ^ "Tanja Szewczenko: Sie zeigt uns ihr Baby! [Tanja Szewczenko shows us her baby]" (in German). Bunte. April 14, 2011. http://www.bunte.de/society/tanja-szewczenko-sie-zeigt-uns-ihr-baby_aid_24264.html. Retrieved April 17, 2011.
- Sports-reference bio
- Official Results: World Junior ChampionshipsPDF
- Official Results: European ChampionshipsPDF
- Official Results: World ChampionshipsPDF
