Tim Lobinger died as a result of his cancer. With him goes not only a successful ex-athlete, but someone who vehemently stood up for his convictions. Even if he messed with it.
German athletics mourns the loss of one of their heroes. According to consistent media reports, Tim Lobinger died on Monday (02/16/2023) at the age of only 50 after a long illness with cancer. “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,” said his family. The former track and field athlete was the first German athlete to manage the magic height of six meters in his discipline.
More successful in the hall
On August 24, 1997, Lobinger crossed this mark for the first time at the ASV sports festival in the former Müngersdorfer Stadion in Cologne, and almost two years later he did it again on the big stage at the Golden League meeting in Oslo. After him, only Danny Ecker and the German record holder Björn Otto, who crossed 6.01 meters in 2012, made it.
Although Lobinger experienced his high point outdoors, his greatest successes were indoors. In 1998 he became European Champion in Valencia and five years later World Champion in Birmingham. In outdoor competitions, it was enough to win silver (2006) and bronze (2002) at the European Championships.
Olympic disappointments and trouble for butt cheers
There Lobinger also experienced his greatest sporting disappointments. Born in Rheinbach, he took part in four Olympic Games, his best result was only seventh place in 1996 in Atlanta. Four years later Lobinger was only 13th in Sydney, 11th in Athens in 2004 and in 2008 he even failed to qualify in Beijing.
Tim Lobinger disappointed with his performance at the 2008 Olympic Games
Lobinger was not only a sensational athlete, but also such a character. In 2003 he won the world final in Monaco, then pulled down his trousers on the lap of honor and presented his bare bottom. There was a fine and a reprimand from the German Athletics Association. “Such behavior is unacceptable and not funny at all. We will make it clear to Tim that something like this cannot be tolerated,” said then-DLV President Clemens Prokop.
“Critical, not adjusted, not calm”
However, Lobinger was not the type to have his behavior dictated to him. “I have such thick skin, I can take so much criticism,” he said afterwards. He also apologized to the world association for his behavior, but shot back. “They should take care of their own problems and not hide behind a bare bottom,” said Lobinger. Appropriately, the “Bild” once wrote about him: “If something doesn’t suit him, Tim Lobinger will quickly become Tim ‘Tobinger’.”
“Criticism, nonconformity, not calm” – that’s how he described himself. “I work against and for many things, try to make the best of our sport together with other pole vaulters. I still take the risk for my attitude in scolding the public.” Lobinger was also a figurehead for his sport and mastered the craft of PR.
Almost overnight to Leipzig
It was all the more painful for the pole vault when he surprisingly pulled the ripcord in 2012. A lucrative offer to work as an athletics coach for the footballers at RB Leipzig (then fourth division) convinced Lobinger to end his career. He had loved his sport. “Defeating gravity” gives him “a great feeling,” said the ex-athlete, who competed in his first year as a pole vaulter at the age of 14 and set a personal best of 3.46 meters.
Tim Lobinger in RB Leipzig dress
It was an “extremely unprepared career end,” admitted Lobinger. He canceled all planned participation in competitions and started his new job within ten days. “I jumped from one moving train to the next moving train,” he said.
Lobinger stayed in Leipzig for four years, then went back to his adopted home of Munich and set up his own business there as a personal trainer. Joshua Kimmich was one of his clients. But after a short time he felt increasingly weak, and on March 3, 2017 he received the diagnosis that completely changed his life: plasma cell leukemia.
The cancer came, went and unfortunately came back
“It was a shock. I cried a lot. Strangely, I slept quite well at night. The next day I got up, cried again, but then I said: Okay, that’s how it is now,” said Lobinger in “Stern”. This was followed by five chemotherapies and a stem cell transplant by the end of the year. “I could freak out with happiness,” he said after the news that a suitable donor had been found.
A year later, the cancer seemed to be defeated after a seven-month stay in the hospital. “If it’s up to me: Life can go on,” Lobinger said happily. But just a few weeks later, the disillusionment came, the cancer returned in a mutated form. But Lobinger tried to make the best of this setback, writing a kind of cancer diary entitled “Losing is not an option. My fight against cancer”, which was published in April 2018.
Fia ensures a happy end to life
Four years later, Lobinger had given up hope of returning to a healthy life. “There will be no more healing for me. The cancer is too aggressive,” he told the “Bild”.
Shortly before his death, there was still wonderful news for him. In January, his daughter Fee had her first child named Fia, making Lobinger a grandfather. “I always wanted to become a young grandpa,” he told the magazine “Bunte”. Unfortunately, he was not able to enjoy this happiness for too long.
