During the Winter Olympics of Calgary in 1988, two major figures of figure skating confront each other. On one side, the East German Katarina Witt, on the other the American Debi Thomas. They are the two favorites, it is about their last Olympic Games and there scandal: the two athletes choose to carry out their long program on the opera Carmen of Bizet, thus giving for nickname to this duel "the battle of Carmens"

Best American skater, Debi Thomas was even World Champion in 1986. She was one of the first African-American skaters to express herself at the highest level, and at the Calgary Games became the first to wear a tight-fitting jumpsuit instead of a skirt. After the year 88, she will retire at 21 years in order to devote herself to her studies of medicine begun two years earlier. Katarina Witt is endowed with a much more extensive list of achievements: already Olympic champion in 1984 at only 18 years old, she has since won all the major competitions she has competed in, except for the 86 Worlds where she finished second behind Thomas. After her amateur career ended in 88 she became a professional skater for various shows and even made a few appearances in Hollywood films. She received an Emmy Award for her performance in the movie-show "Carmen on Ice". Nicknamed "the most beautiful face of socialism", as much an athlete as an artist, she is considered as the skater who brought her discipline into the modernity, by her performances and her media coverage.

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