“The first time I was afraid of death”
Sports reporter talks about cancer
04/23/2025 – 11:11 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Anyone who followed the Olympic Games in Paris at Eurosport knows the voice of Gerhard Leinauer. But in the meantime it looked like he was no longer experiencing the games.
Sports commentator Gerhard Leinauer was afraid of death due to his cancer. A malignant tumor was discovered for the second time in 2023 for the journalist who is in action for Eurosport at the Olympic Games. In 2020 a tumor had already been found, at that time on the lymphatic gland. Cancer only disappeared in the summer of 2022.
Now that he had found bruises and nosebleeds two years ago, he went to the hospital for an MRI examination, Leinauer now reported the “Bunte”.
The doctor then said: “Mr. Leinauer, that doesn’t look good. Not even good at all.” The commentator, born in 1964, asked his oncologist if he would experience his 60th birthday, which was to take place half a year later. Your answer: “This is the goal!” An answer that deeply unsettled him. “It was the first time since my illness that I was afraid of death,” said Leinauer too “Bunte”.
He felt several tumors growing up within a few days. The doctors gave him the diagnosis of blood cancer. Different therapies and stem cell transplants worked. His values are very good two years later. The doctors even call him cancer -free. “If I only inspire a cancer patient, to fight and to pull through such painful therapies, it is a success for me,” said Leinauer.
His next goal: “I can’t wait to report on sporty highlights again – the Kiel Week, cycling events, ski jumping and next year from the Olympic Games.”