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Witt enjoying the post-Playboy limelight
Ever since the two-time Olympic gold medallist stripped off her clothes to cavort through woods and streams for the magazine, no one wants to talk about Sarajevo or Calgary or the duelling Carmens.
At every stop on the pro skating circuit, fans approach Witt with Playboys in hand. She always signs them cheerfully and without hesitation, unashamed that she revealed more of herself sans skates -- and everything else, for that matter -- than she ever did on the ice.
"I'm loving it," Witt said during a stop in Atlanta to promote the Champions on Ice winter tour. "The majority of (fans) say it's beautifully done and, well, 'Go girl."'
Playboy had first approached Witt about appearing in the magazine after her gold-medal winning performance of "Carmen" at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, making her only the second woman to win back-to-back figure skating titles.
With fire-engine red lips, a Spanish comb in her hair and a V-neck, cut-to-the-navel, flamenco-style dress hugging her five-foot-five body, Witt was the consummate seductress.
A reporter opened one Olympic news conference with a marriage proposal. Italian ski champion Alberto Tomba was mesmerized by the blue-eyed German beauty, making public appeals to meet her like some love-struck schoolboy.
Witt never had a rendezvous with Tomba, and she turned down the initial offers from Playboy.
"I think at that time it would have been wrong," she said. "But the timing now is absolutely perfect. People know I've been a skater for many years, but I've been doing a lot of different things."
In addition to skating with Champions on Ice and competing at the occasional pro event, the 33-year-old Witt had a role as a figure skater in the 1998 movie "Ronin," a thriller about post-Cold War mercenaries, starring Robert De Niro.
"I was very honoured when (director) John Frankenheimer asked to have me," Witt said. "To be on the set for 10 days in Paris and meet somebody like Robert De Niro and Jean Reno was totally awesome. And it was even better to get respect back from the actors. They would come to watch my skating and were just incredible to me."
She hopes to land more movie roles, although skating still dominates her life.
"It was nice to know I could go back to the real world, which is the sport," Witt said. "The movie world is very different. It's a very big fantasy land."
So was Carmen, which was still on Playboy's mind when they approached Witt again, a decade after Calgary. Witt decided the timing was right, travelling to Hawaii to model for a 10-page layout in the December issue.
"It was very professionally done," said Witt, who received more than $100,000 to become the first athlete to pose for the magazine. "That's why I liked it. I was involved in the whole creative part. It turned out basically the way I saw it, which was very pure, very natural, athletic and tasteful. They gave me complete freedom on that.
"That's why it's working so well, that's why everyone likes it. Nobody feels offended by anything I did."
Witt is still an alluring figure, able to bring the crowd to its feet even though she no longer can compete with the Michelle Kwans or Tara Lipinskis in the youth-driven world of triple jumps.
On this day, Witt relaxed comfortably on the sofa of a 13th-floor office at CNN Center, maintaining the appearance of simple elegance after a day of tedious one-on-one interviews. She wore velvet black pants, matching shoes and warm-up jacket and a plain, gray T-shirt; her brown hair was tucked tastefully on the back of her head.
The Champions on Ice tour -- which also features Oksana Baiul, Brian Boitano, Dorothy Hamill and Victor Petrenko -- will stop in 40 cities before finishing its run in a couple of weeks.
Witt has no plans to leave the sport that has transformed her life into "three pieces of luggage."
"No, no, no, not a normal life," Witt protested, feigning indignation at the mere thought. "Why would I want to have a normal life? This is my normal life. I want to keep it."