Karin Enke


Karin Enke-Richter is a former speed 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.

Short biography

Karin Enke started her sport career as a figure skater at the club SC Einheit Dresden. Representing East Germany she came in ninth place at the European Figure Skating Championships in 1977. Later she changed to speed skating.
Dominant on all distances, Enke was the favourite for all four distances at the 1984 Winter Olympics of Sarajevo, but she won "only" two gold and two silver medals. At the World Cup, Enke had 21 single-distance victories, but won only one overall World Cup. She retired from speed skating after the 1987–88 season.
Born as Karin Enke, she married in 1981 and competed as Karin Busch during the 1981–82 winter. The marriage did not last long and during the 1982–83 and 1983–84 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, 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 her maiden name as the first part of her last name after her third marriage, just like Gunda Kleemann kept Niemann 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 of Berlin, claimed in the Dutch TV documentary Andere Tijden 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: " 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.".

Medals

An overview of medals won by Enke at important championships she participated in, listing the years in which she won each:
ChampionshipsGold medalSilver medalBronze medal
Winter Olympics1980
1984
1984
1984
1984
1988
1988
1988
World Allround1982
1984
1986
1987
1988
1981
1983
World Sprint1980
1981
1983
1984
1986
1987
1982
1988
World Cup1986 1986
1986
1988
1986
1988
1988
1988
European Allround1981
1982
1983
German Allround1982
1983
German Sprint1984
1986
1983
German Single Distance1980
1983
1983
1983
1983
1983
1984
1984
1984
1986
1987
1988
1988
1980
1986
1986
1986
1988
1980

World records

Over the course of her career, Enke skated 10 world records:
DistanceResultDateLocation
Mini combination168.27114 February 1982Inzell
1500 m2:03.429 February 1984Sarajevo
1000 m1:18.8422 February 1986Karuizawa
Sprint combination160.06023 February 1986Karuizawa
1500 m2:02.236 March 1986Inzell
3000 m4:18.0221 March 1986Medeo
500 m39.5221 March 1986Medeo
1500 m1:59.3022 March 1986Medeo
Mini combination168.38722 March 1986Inzell
1000 m1:18.115 December 1987Calgary

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the last column lists the official world records on the dates that Enke skated her personal records.
DistanceResultDateLocationWR
500 m39.2422 February 1988Calgary39.39
1000 m1:17.7026 February 1988Calgary1:18.11
1500 m1:59.3022 March 1986Medeo2:02.23
3000 m4:17.765 December 1987Calgary4:16.85
5000 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. Enke's personal record on the 1000 m was not a world record either because Christa Rothenburger skated 1:17.65 - 0.05 seconds faster.