Kat Miles
Katharina (Kat) Miles
formerly Rybkowski
Founder and Managing Director
Entrepreneur, figure skater, person of the heart
Kat is a licensed figure skating coach, fitness and personal trainer and athletics trainer for competitive sports. She was a competitive athlete in singles and pairs skating (Olympic squad), show skater for various show formats worldwide as well as a professional skater and trainer on the TV program "Dancing on Ice" on SAT1 (seasons 1 and 2) alongside Detlef Soost and Peer Kusmagk.
My background
- Over 20 years of coaching experience (sport, business)
- 10 years of sales experience
- Social Media Content Producer
- Live TV experience
- Entertainer & Speaker
- Wordly wise
Kat started skating at the age of 5 with Hugo Dümler (DEG Düsseldorf). She loved the sport from the very first second and could not be taken off the ice most days. In addition to figure skating, she did classical ballet, artistic gymnastics and played the violin. On the ice, she won various state championship titles (NRW) and became German youth champion in 1994. In 1997, Kat decided to switch to pairs skating and trained with her partner Rico Rex at the Chemnitz Olympic Training Center until 2000. Alongside Mandy Wötzel and Ingo Steuer as well as Mariana Kautz and Norman Jeschke, Kat & Rico aimed to take part in the European Championships, World Championships and the Olympics. The pair were in the Olympic squad for Salt Lake City, but failed to qualify for the German Championships.
The main reason for the end of her sporting career at this point was Kat's severe eating disorder. After over 2 years of mental abuse, the family decided to bring Kat home to heal and get back to life.
The road back to life was long and rocky. Kat completed her coaching license for popular and competitive figure skating and initially worked as a coach and choreographer at DEG before deciding to go into show business. She has worked for Spotlight Productions (Jenny and Daniel Weiss), Willy Bietak Productions (cruise ships), Ryan Hunka and a few smaller shows in Germany and Asia.
She finished her skating career in 2006 and completed her Bachelor in International Hospitality and Tourism Management, after which she worked for over 10 years in sales & marketing in the hotel industry and finally as a business trainer and coach for Sixt and Robinson Club. Kat is a certified DISG Trainer (persolog® personality model), European Professional Trainer and Senior Consultant (BaTB Bundesverband ausgebildeter Trainer und Berater), Personal Trainer and Fitness Trainer (B-License).
During her time in the corporate world, Kat never set foot on the ice and completely distanced herself from anything to do with ice sports until she received a casting request for the TV show "Dancing on Ice" in 2018. Without realizing that the casting would change her life, she went and got the job. This was followed by two seasons as a professional figure skater and coach on SAT1's Dancing on Ice (2018/2019).
Kat first used the visibility she gained to talk about mental violence in sport and eating disorders. She worked with Tamaris as an advertising partner, with Elena Horn "Hoffnungstrainer" NZZ and pushed the topic at the Miss Germany competition 2022, where she came third (ZDF Mima Mensch, SAT1 Regional, podcast in cooperation with Barmer Krankenkasse) and spoke to psychology students at the University of Hamburg on the topic.
Kat found her way back onto the ice through Dancing on Ice, but was now faced with the challenge of training as an adult skater. She was now hearing things like: "You're not allowed to do jumps, pirouettes etc. during public skating time", "You're not allowed on the ice unless you belong to a club", "The club only takes children", "We have over 200 adults on the waiting list, no chance!".
So in January 2019, Kat decided to found the "SKATE Club". She wanted to create a place where people could learn to skate simply for the joy of the sport. For the first two years, Kat donated all proceeds to charity until, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic, she finally decided to turn the SKATE Club into her own business and let it grow. Despite the pandemic, she has not given up and today "The SKATE Club®" is a meeting point for many enthusiastic amateur and amateur athletes who want to get tips from the best. For Kat, this is just the beginning...
To be continued...