Karin Enke

Karin Voss ( Enke, formerly Busch, Kania and Richter; born 20 June 1961) 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, representing East Germany.

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 (being reigning World Allround Champion and World Sprint Champion, and having won German Single Distance Championships titles on all five distances in 1983), 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.

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 (500 m) 1984 (1000 m) 1984 (1500 m) 1984 (500 m) 1984 (3000 m) 1988 (1000 m) 1988 (1500 m) 1988 (500 m) World Allround 1982 1984 1986 1987 1988 1981 1983 World Sprint 1980 1981 1983 1984 1986 1987 1982 1988 World Cup 1986 (1000 m) 1986 (500 m) 1986 (1500 m) 1988 (1000 m) 1986 (3000/5000 m) 1988 (500 m) 1988 (1500 m) 1988 (3000/5000 m) European Allround 1981 1982 1983 German Allround 1982 1983 German Sprint 1984 1986 1983 German Single Distance 1980 (1000 m) 1983 (500 m) 1983 (1000 m) 1983 (1500 m) 1983 (3000 m) 1983 (5000 m) 1984 (500 m) 1984 (1000 m) 1984 (1500 m) 1986 (1000 m) 1987 (500 m) 1988 (1000 m) 1988 (1500 m) 1980 (1500 m) 1986 (500 m) 1986 (1500 m) 1986 (3000 m) 1988 (500 m) 1980 (500 m)

World records Over the course of her career, Enke skated 10 world records:

Personal records To put these personal records in perspective, the last column (WR) lists the official world records on the dates that Enke skated her personal records.