Tanja Szewczenko
Encyclopedia
Tanja Szewczenko is a German
figure skater and actress. She is the 1994 World bronze medalist
and 1998 European bronze medalist
.
in Germany
, defeating the reigning world champion Oksana Baiul
. A few weeks later, she won her first national title, defeating this time, the figure skating legend Katarina Witt
.
Her prominent success occurred in the mid-nineties where 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. 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. Norman Jeschke
played her pair skating
partner. 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.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
figure skater and actress. She is the 1994 World bronze medalist
World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
and 1998 European bronze medalist
European Figure Skating Championships
The European Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition in which figure skaters compete for the title of European Champion...
.
Biography
Tanja had got her surname from her father, who was the Ukrainian origin, her mother was German from Russia, Vera Küke by name. In 1994, at only 16 years old Szewczenko won her first international competition, at the prestigious Nations CupNations Cup
The Nations Cup is a rugby union competition that was first held in 2006 at Estádio Universitário in Lisbon with Argentina A, Italy A, Portugal and Russia taking part...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, defeating the reigning world champion Oksana Baiul
Oksana Baiul
Oksana Serhiyivna Baiul is a Ukrainian professional figure skater. She is the 1994 Olympic Champion in Ladies' Singles and 1993 World Champion.-Early and personal life:...
. A few weeks later, she won her first national title, defeating this time, the figure skating legend Katarina Witt
Katarina Witt
Katarina Witt is a German figure skater and model. In Germany she was commonly called "Kati" in the past, but today her full name is used more often....
.
Her prominent success occurred in the mid-nineties where she won a bronze medal in the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships
World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
. After finishing 6th place at the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships
World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
, 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
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
over eventual World Champion, Irina Slutskaya. She went on to defeat former World Champion Chen Lu
Chen Lu
Chen Lu is a Chinese figure skater. She is the 1994 and 1998 Olympic bronze medalist and the 1995 World Champion. Chen won the first ever Olympic medal in figure skating for China.- Amateur career :...
and eventual World Champion Maria Butyrskaya
Maria Butyrskaya
Maria Viktorovna Butyrskaya is a Russian figure skater. She is the 1999 World champion, becoming the oldest woman to win that title and the first Russian woman to become a World champion. She is a three-time European champion and in 2002, at age 29, became the oldest woman to win that title. She...
at the NHK Trophy
NHK Trophy
The NHK Trophy is an international, senior-level figure skating competition held as part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. Figure skaters compete in the disciplines of ladies' singles, men's singles, pair skating, and ice dancing....
in Nagano, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and in doing so, earned a spot to the Grand Prix Final in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. She finished 2nd behind American Tara Lipinski
Tara Lipinski
Tara Kristen Lipinski is an American figure skater. At the age of 15, she won the Ladies' Singles Olympic gold medal in figure skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics. Lipinski remains the youngest individual gold medalist in the history of the Olympic Winter Games. She is also the 1997 World...
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. Four years earlier at the Lillehammer Games, she collided with Oksana Baiul
Oksana Baiul
Oksana Serhiyivna Baiul is a Ukrainian professional figure skater. She is the 1994 Olympic Champion in Ladies' Singles and 1993 World Champion.-Early and personal life:...
during warm-ups prior to the free skate.
Szewczenko also won a bronze medal at the 1998 European Figure Skating Championships
European Figure Skating Championships
The European Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition in which figure skaters compete for the title of European Champion...
in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. She also finished 9th at the 1998 World Figure Skating Championships
World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
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
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
edition of Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
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
Unter Uns
Unter uns is a German television soap opera, first broadcast on RTL on 28 November 1994. Centered around the lives of the people in a residential house, which is set in the fictional Schillerallee in Cologne. Since the show debuted the baker's family Weigel is the series core family...
." 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
Alles was zählt
Alles was zählt is a German television soap opera first broadcast on RTL on September 4, 2006. The original plot revolved around Diana Sommer's dream to become a world class ice skater. She fell in love with Julian Herzog, who signed her at the prestigious Steinkamp Sport and Wellness Center, run...
" on RTL Television
RTL Television
Rtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...
. 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. Norman Jeschke
Norman Jeschke
Norman Jeschke is a German pair skater.-Biography:He began skating as a single skater, but later switched to pair skating.With partner Christine Tiltmann, he is the 1997 German junior national champion....
played her pair skating
Pair skating
Pair skating is a figure skating discipline. International Skating Union regulations describe pair teams as consisting of "one lady and one man." The sport is distinguished from ice dancing and single skating by elements unique to pair skating, including overhead lifts, twist lifts, death spirals,...
partner. 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.
Results
| Event | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-00 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympics | 6th | ||||||
| World Championships World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion... |
7th | 3rd | 6th | 9th | |||
| European Championships European Figure Skating Championships The European Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition in which figure skaters compete for the title of European Champion... |
4th | 5th | 4th | 5th | 3rd | WD | |
| World Junior Championships World Junior Figure Skating Championships The World Junior Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which younger figure skaters compete for the title of World Junior Champion... |
3rd | ||||||
| German Championships German Figure Skating Championships The German Figure Skating Championships are a figure skating national championship held annually to determine the national champions of Germany. Skaters compete in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies singles, pair skating, and ice dancing.... |
3rd | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| Champions Series Final Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final The Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final is an international, senior-level figure skating competition. It is the culmination of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. Skaters compete in men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing.... |
2nd | ||||||
| Nations Cup | 8th | 1st | 3rd | 5th | 1st | ||
| NHK Trophy NHK Trophy The NHK Trophy is an international, senior-level figure skating competition held as part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. Figure skaters compete in the disciplines of ladies' singles, men's singles, pair skating, and ice dancing.... |
4th | 1st | |||||
| Karl Schäfer Memorial Karl Schäfer Memorial The Karl Schäfer Memorial is an annual elite senior-level figure skating competition held in Vienna, Austria. Skaters compete in four disciplines: men's singles, ladies singles, pair skating, and ice dance. The competition is named for figure skater Karl Schäfer. The competition is usually held in... |
2nd | ||||||
| Skate Israel Skate Israel Skate Israel is a senior-level international figure skating competition, held in Metulla, Israel. Skaters compete in four disciplines: ladies and men's singles, pairs and ice dancing... |
1st |
- WD = Withdrew