AuroraBorealis
03-07-2004, 01:24 PM
While doing research for an essay on East Germany, I came across a very interesting article discussing the nature of the sports system in the former German Democratic Republic.
The discussion is based in the context of the experiences of a former figure skater Ute, who did not advance in the sport because the regime declared she had "no perspective anymore" (following an injury Ute sustained).
Below I'm providing the link to the article. However, I'm not sure it will work for everyone -- access might be possible only for those linking from academic institutions.
If that is the case, please let me know and I'll copy the whole article here.
I think it's worth reading. :)
Enjoy!
~~~
Source: The Midwest Quarterly, Winter 1999, Vol. 140, Issue 2, pg. 134
"Of Sports, State and Stasi Socialis with an Un-beautiful face" by John G. Rodden
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?index=14&did=000000038444529&SrchMode=3&sid=2&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1078686681&clientId=12520
A few quotes:
"Her own career began at the age of 12. At the state competition for ice skating, Ute expertly turned a triple Salchow, earning one of the top scores. She and her parents were thrilled when she received a Berufungsurkunde [certificate of calling] to attend the major district Sportschule in Erfurt, even if it was 60 miles from home. The invitation's language evinced the GDR's determination to endow this honor with the prestige of tradition; in 1981, like a distinguished scholar "called" to a chaired professorship at a leading German university, Ute, along with a dozen other girl ice skaters from her region, was "called" or "nominated" to the Max Norgler KJS [Kinder- und Jugendschule], a Sportschule named after a Communist Party member and athlete who had died in a Nazi concentration camp."
"The peak moment in Ute's athletic career came when she made the semi-finals in her age group in the GDR's 1984 youth Spartikaiad, held every other year in Leipzig. Then came the kind of injury endemic to high-performance athletes. Attending a two-week training camp in Nordhausen with other top athletes, Ute trained harder than ever and injured her comparatively weak right leg. But her "perspective"-the word used in GDR sports jargon for one's Sportkader prospects-was still "good"; her coaches told her to rest. After several weeks, when her condition had still not improved, surgeons operated on her leg. The operation was successful; her hospital physician informed her that she could resume training within two months.
When she returned to the Sportschule, she began light training, hobbling around on her cast. But soon Ute's idyll was shattered. One day the head of the ice skating department called her in to see him. Her injury, he said, and her less-than-stellar-though strong-performance forced him, reluctantly, to an unpleasant decision: she had "no perspective any more"; she would be dropped from her skater group and put in the lOth-grade "exit class" for six months, after which she would be discharged to a regular high school. And so, not long after the February 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, in which the lissome 18-year-old Katharina Witt won her first Olympic gold medal in figure skating, Ute was out."
The discussion is based in the context of the experiences of a former figure skater Ute, who did not advance in the sport because the regime declared she had "no perspective anymore" (following an injury Ute sustained).
Below I'm providing the link to the article. However, I'm not sure it will work for everyone -- access might be possible only for those linking from academic institutions.
If that is the case, please let me know and I'll copy the whole article here.
I think it's worth reading. :)
Enjoy!
~~~
Source: The Midwest Quarterly, Winter 1999, Vol. 140, Issue 2, pg. 134
"Of Sports, State and Stasi Socialis with an Un-beautiful face" by John G. Rodden
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?index=14&did=000000038444529&SrchMode=3&sid=2&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1078686681&clientId=12520
A few quotes:
"Her own career began at the age of 12. At the state competition for ice skating, Ute expertly turned a triple Salchow, earning one of the top scores. She and her parents were thrilled when she received a Berufungsurkunde [certificate of calling] to attend the major district Sportschule in Erfurt, even if it was 60 miles from home. The invitation's language evinced the GDR's determination to endow this honor with the prestige of tradition; in 1981, like a distinguished scholar "called" to a chaired professorship at a leading German university, Ute, along with a dozen other girl ice skaters from her region, was "called" or "nominated" to the Max Norgler KJS [Kinder- und Jugendschule], a Sportschule named after a Communist Party member and athlete who had died in a Nazi concentration camp."
"The peak moment in Ute's athletic career came when she made the semi-finals in her age group in the GDR's 1984 youth Spartikaiad, held every other year in Leipzig. Then came the kind of injury endemic to high-performance athletes. Attending a two-week training camp in Nordhausen with other top athletes, Ute trained harder than ever and injured her comparatively weak right leg. But her "perspective"-the word used in GDR sports jargon for one's Sportkader prospects-was still "good"; her coaches told her to rest. After several weeks, when her condition had still not improved, surgeons operated on her leg. The operation was successful; her hospital physician informed her that she could resume training within two months.
When she returned to the Sportschule, she began light training, hobbling around on her cast. But soon Ute's idyll was shattered. One day the head of the ice skating department called her in to see him. Her injury, he said, and her less-than-stellar-though strong-performance forced him, reluctantly, to an unpleasant decision: she had "no perspective any more"; she would be dropped from her skater group and put in the lOth-grade "exit class" for six months, after which she would be discharged to a regular high school. And so, not long after the February 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, in which the lissome 18-year-old Katharina Witt won her first Olympic gold medal in figure skating, Ute was out."