Gymn Forum: Berlin Sports Aces: Karin Janz

Berlin Sports Aces: Karin Janz

Berliner Zeitung, 4 June 1967

“…cheeky Karin mocked gravity … the dark blonde gymnast soon became the darling of the crowd.” This is what Dutch newspapers wrote after the women’s European gymnastics championships in Amsterdam, where the 15-year-old Karin Janz, who recently joined SC Dynamo Berlin, took fourth place in the all-around event, the bronze medal on the vault, and even the silver medal on the uneven bars. In the previous year at the world championships in Dortmund, Natalia Kuchinskaya (USSR) reaped cheers from the crowd with her natural freshness, and this time the carefree gymnast Karin won the hearts of the audience with her first international appearance.

Although Karin wasn’t born in Berlin, she was baptized with water from the Spree River. She was born in Spreewaldort Hartmannsdorf (Lubben district). Karin couldn’t walk at all when her father, an enthusiastic gymnast and now a teacher of physics and sports in Lubben, performed gymnastics exercises with her. At the age of 10 she began to train systematically in Forst under the guidance of her first coach, Klaus Hellbeck, and was very enthusiastic about it. The first successes soon followed: 13-year-old Karin was the best in the GDR Performance Class I and finally junior champion.

What thoughts may have gone through the minds of the world class gymnasts before their European championships debut? In her home in Berlin, which is decorated with brightly colored flowers, Karin gave us the answer. “I had nothing to lose, but everything to gain. My motto, therefore, was: Don’t worry! Everything will be good.” Even when there was a long break between the first and second vaults (television viewers will remember) because the judges had too great differences in their scores, Karin didn’t get nervous. “Coach Ellen Berger knew how to distract me and bring myself to think other thoughts. So, I stayed calm and was able to complete the second vault with full concentration.”

Despite the high amount of training that a top athlete has to undertake, high school student Karin also earns excellent grades. Her average is 1.4 and after passing the Abitur, she would like to study medicine. Karin is eager to achieve this just as she is to be among the world’s elite gymnasts and make it onto the highest podium at the awards ceremony. She is on the way with the help of her current coach, Werner Pohland. But Karin says decisively, “I still have a long way to go. Above all, I have to improve my gymnastics and the expression of my gymnastics. But I will work hard on it.” The ever better development of the next generation of our socialist sports movement will cause further impact in the sports press, of that we are certain.