Katharina Müller (born 12 September 1995) is a retired German competitive ice dancer. With her skating partner Tim Dieck, she is a two-time German national champion and has won many senior international medals, including two silver medals on the ISU Challenger Series and three gold medals at the German NRW Trophy. They have represented Germany at the European and World championships.
Personal life
Katharina Müller was born on 12 September 1995 in Nizhnevartovsk, Russia.[1] She moved with her family to Germany in 1999.[2] As of 2017, she is studying teaching, English, and sports science at Ruhr University Bochum.[2]
Career
Early career
Müller began skating in 2000 in Bielefeld.[3][4] She took up ice dancing in 2009, teaming up with Justin Gerke.[2] The two were coached by Vladimir Tsvetkov in Berlin.[5] They parted ways after the 2012–13 season, Gerke having decided to retire from competition.[6]
2014–15 season
Vitali Schulz arranged a tryout between Müller and Tim Dieck.[6] They teamed up in April 2014, coached by Schulz und James Young in Dortmund.[2] Assigned to two Junior Grand Prix events, they placed eighth in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and seventh in Aichi, Japan. After winning the 2015 German junior national title, they were sent to the 2015 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia; ranked thirteenth in the short dance, they qualified for the final segment and finished twelfth overall.
2015–16 season
Competing in the Challenger Series (CS), Müller/Dieck finished tenth in September at the 2015 Nebelhorn Trophy – their first senior international – and eighth the following month at the 2015 Mordovian Ornament. In November, they won bronze at the 2015 NRW Trophy before appearing at their third CS event, the 2015 Tallinn Trophy, where they placed fifth. They were awarded the silver medal at the German Championships in December, having finished second to Lorenz/Polizoakis, and took bronze at the Toruń Cup. Müller/Dieck were included in Germany's team to the 2016 European Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia, but were eliminated after placing twenty-third in the short dance.[7]
In spring 2016, Müller/Dieck began training under Marina Zueva in Canton, Michigan, in addition to Schulz and Young in Dortmund.[2]
Despite the continued limitations of the pandemic on international competition, Müller/Dieck won their first Challenger medal, a silver at the 2020 CS Budapest Trophy, as well as their third gold medal at the NRW Trophy. Repeating as German national champions, they went on to make their World Championship debut at the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm, where they came in eighteenth.[8] This result qualified a berth for a German ice dance team at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.[10]
2021–22 season
Müller/Dieck began the season at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, winning the silver medal. Dieck noted that it was "always special to win a medal in Germany", while Müller said "we were not competing for an Olympic spot here, but it was important to us for our national qualification and to prove that we are ready and want to go to the Olympic Games."[11] They came ninth at the 2021 CS Finlandia Trophy.[8]
Müller/Dieck began the 2022 Winter Olympics as the German entries in the rhythm dance segment of the Olympic team event, where they finished tenth among ten.[14] In the dance event, they were twenty-first in the rhythm dance, missing the cut for the free dance.[15]
The team encountered new difficulties following the Olympics, as Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and resultant tensions between Russia and Germany resulted in their being unable to return to their Moscow training location.[16]
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