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:| Championships | Gold medal | Silver medal | Bronze medal |
| Winter Olympics | 1980 1984 1984 | 1984 1984 1988 1988 | 1988 |
| World Allround | 1982 1984 1986 1987 1988 | 1981 1983 | |
| World Sprint | 1980 1981 1983 1984 1986 1987 | 1982 1988 | |
| World Cup | 1986 | 1986 1986 1988 | 1986 1988 1988 1988 |
| European Allround | 1981 1982 1983 | ||
| German Allround | 1982 1983 | ||
| German Sprint | 1984 1986 | 1983 | |
| German Single Distance | 1980 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:| Distance | Result | Date | Location |
| Mini combination | 168.271 | 14 February 1982 | Inzell |
| 1500 m | 2:03.42 | 9 February 1984 | Sarajevo |
| 1000 m | 1:18.84 | 22 February 1986 | Karuizawa |
| Sprint combination | 160.060 | 23 February 1986 | Karuizawa |
| 1500 m | 2:02.23 | 6 March 1986 | Inzell |
| 3000 m | 4:18.02 | 21 March 1986 | Medeo |
| 500 m | 39.52 | 21 March 1986 | Medeo |
| 1500 m | 1:59.30 | 22 March 1986 | Medeo |
| Mini combination | 168.387 | 22 March 1986 | Inzell |
| 1000 m | 1:18.11 | 5 December 1987 | Calgary |
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.| Distance | Result | Date | Location | WR |
| 500 m | 39.24 | 22 February 1988 | Calgary | 39.39 |
| 1000 m | 1:17.70 | 26 February 1988 | Calgary | 1:18.11 |
| 1500 m | 1:59.30 | 22 March 1986 | Medeo | 2:02.23 |
| 3000 m | 4:17.76 | 5 December 1987 | Calgary | 4:16.85 |
| 5000 m | 7:39.82 | 22 March 1986 | Medeo | 7:31.45 |
| Small combination | 168.272 | 22 March 1986 | Medeo | 171.760 |
| Mini combination | 168.271 | 14 February 1982 | Inzell | 168.387 |
| Sprint combination | 160.060 | 23 February 1986 | Karuizawa | 161.120 |
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.