Lost battle with cancer
Pole vault star Tim Lobinger is dead
02/16/2023, 8:27 p.m
German athletics is mourning one of its big stars: the former pole vault world champion Tim Lobinger is dead. According to media reports, the 50-year-old lost the fight against cancer.
The sports world is sad: Tim Lobinger has lost the hardest fight of his life. According to media reports, the former indoor world champion in pole vaulting died this Thursday, he was only 50 years old. He had already announced in the autumn of last year that he was going to die. “There will be no more healing for me. My cancer is too aggressive,” he told the “Bild” newspaper at the time.
In a statement from the family to the “Bild” newspaper it says: “The former pole vault legend fell asleep peacefully in a small circle, he did not lose the fight, but won in his own way. Please see further media inquiries for the benefit of the family off.”
In the past few months, he has repeatedly reported via Instagram and given updates on his health. “Typical winter look. And yet I’m almost always cold,” he wrote just over a week ago. With some of the set hashtags, he makes it clear that he is currently in a positive mood. Among other things, it says not only #continue, but also #highfivetolife, #energy, #gooddays or #power.
Lobinger was diagnosed with blood cancer in March 2017. After chemotherapy, stem cell donations, interim relapses and a brief liver failure in the summer of 2018, the ex-professional was considered healthy again. According to Lobinger, he had to undergo therapy again in 2020 and received additional radiation. “It started with joint problems. Suddenly I had visible dents all over my body. On my legs, shoulders, head,” he once explained
Giving up was not an option for the 1998 European Indoor Champion and 2003 World Indoor Champion, who was the first German to jump the magical 6 meter mark outdoors. After his playing days, Lobinger worked as a personal trainer, looked after the German national player Joshua Kimmich, among others, and was an athletic trainer for the then second division club RB Leipzig.