Athletics mourns the loss of Tim Lobinger. The former pole vaulter succumbed to his severe cancer.
Tim Lobinger flew higher than any German before him. In the summer of 1997, the country suddenly had a new athletics star, one who was loud, determined, who always spoke his mind – and took pole vaulting to a new level in his homeland. Lobinger was the first to break the magical six-meter mark, and at the end of the 1990s he became a hero of his sport.
Now it’s not just athletics that mourn the man who always fought for what was important to him. Lobinger succumbed to his severe cancer on Thursday in Munich, the RTL family said. He was 50 years old. “The former pole vault legend fell asleep peacefully in a small circle, he didn’t lose the fight, he won it in his own way,” says a statement from the relatives.
A long, tough fight preceded it. Lobinger was diagnosed with leukemia for the first time in March 2017, “I have my back against the wall, now I have to function and fight,” he said at the time. He underwent five chemotherapies and a stem cell transplant, but in the spring of 2018 the blood cancer was back.
Lobinger was the face of German pole vaulting
The former world-class athlete always spoke very openly about his illness. Last autumn he no longer assumed a cure. “My cancer is too aggressive,” he told the “Bild” newspaper. However, he did not think about giving up: “It is worth fighting for every day that I live and can spend with my family.”
His son Okkert started school last year, daughter Fee got married. Lobinger looked for and “always found little ways to gain strength,” he once said. In February 2023, his family emphasizes that he “didn’t lose the fight, but won it in his own way.”
As a winner, he became known to a whole generation, Lobinger was the face of German pole vaulting. The ascent began in August 1997 in Cologne-Müngersdorf, under the open sky, where he jumped the six meters for the first time. However, the native of Rheinbach won his greatest titles indoors: in 1998 Lobinger became European Champion in Valencia and in 2003 he was crowned World Champion in Birmingham. He was on the podium twice outdoors at the European Championships: in 2002 Lobinger won bronze in Munich and in 2006 he won silver in Gothenburg.
Between 2012 and 2016 Lobinger worked as an athletic trainer for Bundesliga club RB Leipzig. The Saxons expressed their condolences to the relatives on Thursday evening.