Gabriele Seyfert

Gabriele "Gaby" Seyfert (later Rüger, then Messerschmidt, now Körner, born 23 November 1948) is a German former figure skater. She is a two-time World champion (1969, 1970), and the 1968 Olympic silver medalist.

Gabriele Seyfert
Seyfert in 1968
Born	(1948-11-23) 23 November 1948 (age 76) Chemnitz, Soviet occupation zone of Germany
Height	1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Figure skating career
Country	East Germany
Skating club	SC Karl-Marx-Stadt
Retired	1972
Medal record Ladies' figure skating Representing  East Germany Olympic Games 1968 Grenoble Ladies' singles World Championships 1970 Ljubljana Ladies' singles 1969 Colorado Springs Ladies' singles 1968 Geneva Ladies' singles 1967 Vienna Ladies' singles 1966 Davos Ladies' singles European Championships 1970 Leningrad Ladies' singles 1969 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Ladies' singles 1968 Västerås Ladies' singles 1967 Ljubljana Ladies' singles 1966 Bratislava Ladies' singles

She is the first lady to successfully land a triple loop jump in competition.

Skating career

Seyfert skated for the club SC Karl-Marx-Stadt and represented East Germany. Her coach was her mother Jutta Müller, who also coached 1984 and 1988 Olympic champion Katarina Witt. She was a long-time rival of Peggy Fleming, 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.

Seyfert ended her figure skating career in 1970. Unlike Peggy Fleming, she was not allowed to skate professionally. Offers by Holiday on Ice were refused by East German authorities. She was a Stasi informer under the codename "Perle".^[1]

Seyfert turned to coaching, and worked with Anett Pötzsch in the early 1970s.^[2] The East German coach hierarchy later transferred Pötzsch to Jutta Müller's group, and Seyfert ended her coaching career.

Personal life

Seyfert was the only child of Wolfgang Seyfert and the former ice dancer and world famous coach, among them Katarina Witt, Jutta Müller.

She married ice dancer Eberhard Rüger in 1972 and they had a daughter in 1974. She then married Jochen Messerschmidt. In 2011, she married Egbert Körner.^[3][4]

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

International
Event	60–61	61–62	62–63	63–64	64–65	65–66	66–67	67–68	68–69	69–70
Winter Olympics				19th				2nd
World Champ.		21st			5th	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	1st
European Champ.	21st	12th	10th		5th	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	1st
Prague Skate					2nd
Blue Swords		1st	2nd	1st	1st	1st	1st
National
East German	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st