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Tanja Szewczenko
Tanja Szewczenko
	Szewczenko in 2007
Born	26 July 1977 (age 47); Düsseldorf, West Germany
Height	1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Figure skating career
Country	Germany
Retired	2000
Medal record
Figure skating: Ladies' singles
Representing Germany
World Championships
European Championships
Grand Prix Final
World Junior Championships

Tanja Szewczenko (born 26 July 1977) is a German former figure skater. She is the 1994 World bronze medalist, 1997 Champions Series Final silver medalist, 1998 European bronze medalist, and 1993 World Junior bronze medalist.

Personal life

Szewczenko was born to Vera Küke, an ethnic German immigrant from the Soviet Union, and a Ukrainian father who left the family when she was two years old.^[1]

Competitive career

Szewczenko won the bronze medal at the 1993 World Junior Championships.^[2]

In 1993, at the age of 16, Szewczenko won her first international competition at the Nations Cup in Germany, defeating the reigning world champion Oksana Baiul. A few weeks later, she won her first national title, defeating former Olympic champion Katarina Witt. Szewczenko competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. During a practice session before the long program, she collided with Oksana Baiul, sustaining a bruised right hip and abdomen.^[3] She finished 6th at the event.^[4] Szewczenko won a bronze medal at the 1994 World Championships.^[5]

After finishing 6th at the 1996 Worlds, Szewczenko struggled for 18 months with a pair of viral infections which caused her to sleep 18 hours a day.^[6] She made a comeback in late 1997, winning on home ice at the 1997 Sparkassen Cup on Ice in Gelsenkirchen, Germany over eventual World champion, Irina Slutskaya. She went on to defeat former World champion Chen Lu and eventual World champion Maria Butyrskaya at the 1997 NHK Trophy in Nagano, Japan, and in doing so, earned a spot to the 1997–98 Champions Series Final in Munich, Germany. She won the silver medal behind American Tara Lipinski. Her tonsils were removed in December 1997.^[6]

Szewczenko won a bronze medal at the 1998 European Championships in Milan, Italy.^[7] She contracted a severe flu at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and withdrew from the event.^[8]^[9] She finished 9th at the 1998 World Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota a month later.

Szewczenko retired from competitive figure skating in 2000 to concentrate on modelling and acting. She is the last German ladies' singles skater to medal at an ISU Championships.

Later career

Szewczenko posed for the German edition of Playboy magazine in April 1999 and March 2007. Beginning in 2002, she played the role of Katinka "Kati" Ritter on the German soap opera Unter uns. Her last appearance on the soap was 5 December 2005. From September 2006 until 2009, Szewczenko appeared in the German soap opera Alles was zählt on RTL Television. She played the role of Diana Sommer, an inline courier, who trained as a figure skater alongside the wealthy daughter of a fitness center mogul.^[10] Norman Jeschke played her pair skating partner.^[10] In January 2009, Szewczenko left the series to return to show skating, joining the Holiday on Ice show with Jeschke.

Personal life

Szewczenko and Norman Jeschke have a daughter who was born in February 2011^[11]^[12] and twin sons who were born in April 2021.^[13]

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating
1997–1998	Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber	Speed by Mark Mancina
1995–1996	Forrest Gump (soundtrack)	Miss Saigon, "20 hz" by Capricorn
1994–1995	That's Entertainment! (from The Band Wagon) by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz Let Me Entertain You (from Gypsy ) by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim	Miss Saigon, "20 hz" by Capricorn
1993–1994	Ballet Russe	Man of La Mancha
1992–1993	Ballet Russe	Samson and Delilah (opera)

Results

GP: Champions Series (Grand Prix)

International^[14]
Event	92–93	93–94	94–95	95–96	97–98	98–99	99–00
Winter Olympics		6th			WD
World Champ.	7th	3rd	WD	6th	9th
European Champ.	4th	5th	4th	5th	3rd	WD
GP Final					2nd
GP Nations Cup	8th	1st	3rd	5th	1st
GP NHK Trophy			4th		1st
Schäfer Memorial		2nd
Skate Israel				1st
Piruetten		5th
International: Junior^[14]
World Junior Champ.	3rd	4th
National^[14]
German Champ.	3rd	1st	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	3rd
WD = Withdrew

References

^ "GS Starportrait: Tanja Szewczenko". GQ (German edition). Archived from the original on 26 November 2012.
^ "World Junior Figure Skating Championships: Ladies" (PDF). International Skating Union.
^ Longman, Jere (25 February 1994). "Baiul Is Injured In Skating Collision". The New York Times.
^ "Tanja Szewczenko". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
^ "World Figure Skating Championships: Ladies" (PDF). International Skating Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 May 2013.
^ ^a ^b Pucin, Diane (1 February 1998). "Looking For A Gold Medal - And Something More". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 16 June 2014.
^ "European Figure Skating Championships: Ladies" (PDF). International Skating Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2013.
^ Pucin, Diane (16 February 1998). "Skater Szewczenko Out Of Competition". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 16 June 2014.
^ Sullivan, Kevin (19 February 1998). "The Flu Plagues Olympics". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Germany's top-ranked figure skater, Tanja Szewczenko, withdrew from the Games before her event started. She had been sick with flu for more than a week and chose to return home to recuperate[…]
^ ^a ^b Elfman, Lois (28 January 2010). "Szewczenko rediscovers her love of skating". icenetwork.com. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
^ "Tanja Szewczenko ist Mama geworden" [Tanja Szewczenko is a mother] (in German). unterhaltung.t-online.de. 26 February 2011. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011.
^ "Tanja Szewczenko: Sie zeigt uns ihr Baby!" [Tanja Szewczenko shows us her baby]. Bunte (in German). 14 April 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
^ "Tanja Szewczenko bekommt Zwillinge "Hallo, wir sind Leo & Luis!"". Spiegel Panorama. Der Spiegel Online. 29 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Tanja SZEWCZENKO". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 20 April 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)