“She was so charming that I immediately opened my heart to Lavinia,” Witt told the newspaper about the actress Bild. “Seeing him perform live was surreal because I was reunited with my younger self. He is as excited about playing as I am about the ice. I really enjoyed traveling back in time,” added Wittová, who was involved in the film’s production.

Lavini shared the news on her Instagram account on Friday. “I am thrilled to embody such an inspiring woman,” she commented on her new role.

Filming will last until the end of May, but it is not yet clear when exactly the film will be broadcast on television. Director Michaela Kazele’s work, with the working title “Eine Kür, die bleibt” (“Remaining Freestyle”) takes place in 1994, when Witt tries to make a comeback at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics with the help of her coach Jutta Müller. At that time, Wittová was already representing unified Germany, but only finished in seventh place.

Lavinia Nowaková was born in 1995, that is, a year after Wittová’s derniere in Lillehammer. When the filmmakers approached him, he didn’t know about Witt. “I thought it would be a fictional story,” admitted the actress, who last stood on skates at the age of 13 and had never done figure skating.

Now he has to catch up because of the film, so in the last two months he has been training intensively under the supervision of two female trainers. “I absorbed everything I could find about Katarina. Interviews, documentaries, her style. I also read her books and thought a lot about Katarina. I have to say that there are many similarities between figure skating and theater,” said Nowaková.

The Munich native even learned the Saxon dialect that Wittová spoke because he grew up in Karl-Marx-Stadt, which is now called Saská Kamenice (Chemnitz). “Katarina has incredible charisma. She walks in and the room lights up. I’m fascinated by her, we get along very well,” added Nowaková.