Gabriele "Gaby" Seyfert (later Rüger, then Messerschmidt, now Körner, born 23 November 1948) is a German former

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

. She is a two-time World champion (

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

), and the 1968 Olympic silver medalist. She is the first lady to successfully land a triple

loop jump The loop jump is an edge jump in the sport of figure skating. The skater executes it by taking off from the back outside edge of the skating foot, turning one rotation in the air, and landing on the back outside edge of the same foot. It is oft ...

in competition.

Skating career

Seyfert skated for the club

SC Karl-Marx-Stadt SC Karl-Marx-Stadt was a sports club located at Karl-Marx-Stadt in the German Democratic Republic. Established in 1945, the sports club went through a variation of name changes until 1 July 1963, settling with SC Karl-Marx-Stadt, which lasted unt ...

and represented

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

. Her coach was her mother

Jutta Müller Jutta Müller ( Lötzsch; born 13 December 1928) is a German former figure skater and one of the most successful figure skating coaches worldwide. Personal life Jutta Lötzsch was born to Marie Lötzsch (née Prusky) and Emil Lötzsch, the 1 ...

, who also coached 1984 and 1988 Olympic champion Katarina Witt. She was a long-time rival of

Peggy Fleming Peggy Gale Fleming (born July 27, 1948) is an American former figure skater and the only American in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France to bring home a Gold Medal. She is the 1968 Olympic Champion in Ladies' singles and a three-time W ...

, 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 Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

. Seyfert ended her figure skating career in 1970. Unlike Peggy Fleming, she was not allowed to skate professionally. Offers by

Holiday on Ice Holiday on Ice is an ice show currently owned by Medusa Music Group GmbH, a subsidiary of CTS EVENTIM, Europe's largest ticket distributor, with its headquarters in Bremen, Germany. History Holiday on Ice originated in the United States in Decem ...

were refused by East German authorities. She was a

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maintaining state autho ...

informer under the codename "Perle". Seyfert turned to coaching, and worked with

Anett Pötzsch Anett Pötzsch (later Witt, now Rauschenbach, born 3 September 1960) is a German former figure skater. She is the 1980 Olympic champion, two-time World champion (1978, 1980), four-time European champion (1977–1980), and five-time East Ger ...

in the early 1970s. 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 Eberhard Rüger is a German former ice dancer who represented East Germany. With his skating partner, Annerose Baier, he became a three-time Blue Swords champion (1963, 1965, 1966), the 1968 Prize of Moscow News champion, and an eight-time Ea ...

in 1972 and they had a daughter in 1974. She then married Jochen Messerschmidt. In 2011, she married Egbert Körner. 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

References

* Seyfert, Gaby: ''Da muss noch was sein: Mein Leben – mehr als Pflicht und Kür'', 1998, * Seyfert, Gaby: ''Auf Wolke eins ist immer Platz. Single sucht Single'', 2000, * Olga Fluegge
Gaby Seyfert: First Star of Eastern Germany

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Seyfert, Gabriele 1948 births Living people German female single skaters Figure skaters at the 1964 Winter Olympics Figure skaters at the 1968 Winter Olympics Olympic figure skaters of the United Team of Germany Olympic figure skaters of East Germany Olympic silver medalists for East Germany Sportspeople from Chemnitz Olympic medalists in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships medalists European Figure Skating Championships medalists Medalists at the 1968 Winter Olympics People of the Stasi 20th-century German women East German figure skaters East German sportswomen People from Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt