Heitzer built on the successes of her compatriots Hanna Eigel , Ingrid Wendl and Hanna Walter from the 1950s. From 1960 to 1966 she was Austrian champion in figure skating for women. In the period from 1958 to 1966 she took part in all nine European championships , where she landed on the podium seven times in a row from 1960 to 1966. In 1960 , 1961 , 1962 and 1964 she was vice-European champion behind the dominant Dutch woman Sjoukje Dijkstra . In 1963 she won bronze behind Dijkstra and the French Nicole Hassler and in 1965 and 1966 (in Pressburg ) Heitzer was finally European champion. With the exception of 1961, Heitzer took part in all world championships from 1958 to 1965 . From 1962 to 1965 she reached the podium four times in a row, but without making the leap to the top. At the 1962 World Cup , Heitzer won bronze behind Sjoukje Dijkstra and the Canadian Wendy Griner . In 1963 and 1964 she was runner-up behind the Dutch woman and in 1965 behind the Dutch-born Canadian Petra Burka . Heitzer represented Austria at two Olympic Games ; In 1960 in Squaw Valley she finished seventh and in 1964 in Innsbruck , she won the silver medal behind Sjoukje Dijkstra. She could never beat the Dutchwoman, but was the second best figure skater in the world in the early 1960s and a diligent collector of medals. In total, she won twelve medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships.
After the end of her amateur career (her resignation on February 12, 1966, before the World Championships in Davos , came as a surprise), she switched to the professionals, appeared in a show in Berlin at the end of June 1966 and ran from 1967 to 1971 at the Wiener Eisrevue and Holiday On Ice, until a numbness in her foot in Prague made figure skating impossible for her. She then started working in her father's business, a wholesaler of upholstered furniture, in which she invested her income from her professional career.
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Austria
