Gabriele Seyfert

Gabriele "Gaby" Seyfert (later Rüger, then Messerschmidt, now Körner, born 23 November 1948) is a German former figure skater. She is a two-time World champion (1969, 1970), and the 1968 Olympic silver medalist.

Gabriele Seyfert
Gabriele Seyfert in 1968
Personal information
Country representedEast Germany
Born (1948-11-23) 23 November 1948
Chemnitz, East Germany
Height1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Skating clubSC Karl-Marx-Stadt
Retired1972
Medal record
Ladies' figure skating
Representing  East Germany
Olympic Games
1968 Grenoble Ladies' singles
World Championships
1970 Ljubljana Ladies' singles
1969 Colorado Springs Ladies' singles
1968 Geneva Ladies' singles
1967 Vienna Ladies' singles
1966 Davos Ladies' singles
European Championships
1970 Leningrad Ladies' singles
1969 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Ladies' singles
1968 Västerås Ladies' singles
1967 Ljubljana Ladies' singles
1966 Bratislava Ladies' singles

Skating career

Seyfert skated for the club SC Karl-Marx-Stadt and represented the GDR (East Germany). Her coach was her mother Jutta Müller, who also coached 1984 and 1988 Olympic champion Katarina Witt. She was a long-time rival of Peggy Fleming, but never defeated her.

In 1966, after two silver medals at the Europeans and the Worlds, she was voted as “The GDR female athlete of the year." She became the first woman to land a clean triple loop.

Seyfert ended her figure skating career in 1970. Unlike Peggy Fleming, she was not allowed to skate professionally. Offers by Holiday on Ice were refused by East German authorities. She was a Stasi informer under the codename "Perle".[1]

Seyfert turned to coaching, and worked with Anett Pötzsch in the early 1970s.[2] The East German coach hierarchy later transferred Pötzsch to Jutta Müller's group, and Seyfert ended her coaching career.

Personal life

She married ice dancer Eberhard Rüger in 1972 and they had a daughter in 1974. She then married Jochen Messerschmidt. In 2011, she married Egbert Körner.[3][4]

After ending her coaching career, Seyfert studied languages at university and worked as a professional translator. From 1985 to 1991, she led the ice ballet at the Friedrichstadtpalast in East Berlin, where she also skated occasionally. After the ice ballet was closed, she worked at a service industry business in Berlin. She lives in Berlin-Karow.

Results
International
Event 60–61 61–62 62–63 63–64 64–65 65–66 66–67 67–68 68–69 69–70
Winter Olympics19th2nd
World Champ.21st5th2nd2nd2nd1st1st
European Champ.21st12th10th5th2nd1st2nd1st1st
Prague Skate2nd
Blue Swords1st2nd1st1st1st1st
National
East German1st1st1st1st1st1st1st1st1st1st
gollark: [EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION EXPUNGED], which I go to, has apparently decided that it is now "post-pandemic" times and has rolled back basically every COVID-19 mitigation thing except having hand sanitizer dispensers and lateral flow tests, including returning to densely packing (mostly unmasked) people into poorly ventilated rooms to watch stuff which is just livestreamed over the internet™ now anyway.
gollark: I see.
gollark: Here is a link which exists: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/one-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-can-cut-household-transmission-by-up-to-half
gollark: They do apparently reduce but not eliminate transmission a lot.
gollark: I wonder if it's region-dependent at all.

References
  1. Stasi, Da war noch was, Gaby!
  2. Klaus-Reinhold Kany (5 June 2011). Anett Pötzsch: Germany’s First Golden Girl Archived 12 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Ifsmagazine.com. Retrieved on 2012-08-10.
  3. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Gabriele Seyfert". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  4. Weise, Klaus (23 November 2013). ""Zeichnen ohne Radiergummi"" ["Drawing without eraser"]. Schweriner Volkszeitung (in German). Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  • Seyfert, Gaby: Da muss noch was sein: Mein Leben – mehr als Pflicht und Kür, 1998, ISBN 3-360-00869-3
  • Seyfert, Gaby: Auf Wolke eins ist immer Platz. Single sucht Single, 2000, ISBN 3-360-00935-5
  • Olga Fluegge, Gaby Seyfert: First Star of Eastern Germany


Awards
Preceded by
Hannelore Suppe		 East German Sportswoman of the Year
1966		 Succeeded by
Karin Janz
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