Ladies' figure skating, like fashion and music, reached a certain level of excess and bombast in the 1980s: the hair was big, the costumes were floofy and glittery, programs were stuffed chock-full of music cuts and the duo of Jutta Müller and Katarina Witt were stomping all over the field.
As such, it is not terribly surprising that one of my favorite guilty pleasure skaters was the product of this particular period of time. Although few remember Claudia Leistner as well as her East German counterpart Katarina Witt these days, Ms. Leistner managed to worm her way into my heart by consistently being an obstinate, wrong-headed, ridiculous and absolutely wonderful hot mess. It is certainly no mean feat to outdo Jutta Müller when it comes to bizarre choreography, but Ms. Leistner (and whoever her choreographer was) managed to do exactly that, bless her soul.