Top writer dies

[I knew Ursula well and am shocked at her passing. She was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable specialist athletics writer. Mostly she was a dear, sweet soul who loved her work and was an adornment to the sport she followed. What a loss, especially for aths in Germany. kk]

Athletics journalist Ursula Kaiser passes away at 44
Saturday 30 December 2006

30 December 2006 - Ursula Kaiser, who regularly reported for the IAAF website and IAAF Magazine, died in the early morning hours of 28 December. The death of the 44-year-old prolific German athletics journalist came totally unexpected and caused a huge shock among national and international colleagues.

Kaiser, who lived in Stuttgart, had been a sprint hurdler and long jumper with regional success as a junior. After injury had ended her athletics career she began an apprenticeship at a publishing company in Stuttgart. After that she decided to become a freelance sports journalist, concentrating primarily on athletics but also covering other sports. Within athletics, the combined events, sprints and jumps had been the disciplines she put a particular focus on.

She started writing for the Stuttgarter Nachrichten at the beginning of the 1990s as well as for Germany’s athletics magazine, Leichtathletik. Other papers she regularly worked for included Sonntag Aktuell and Rheinpfalz. Additionally Kaiser was a valued correspondent for the German press agency, DPA and the website for the European Athletics Association. She regularly assisted meeting organisers as well as the local and the national federations, WLV and DLV.

Kaiser, who was not married and had no children, loved Spain and studied the language. She died at her sister’s family home after spending the Christmas holiday with them. She has worked until the very last moment before suffering of a suspected heart failure.

Kaiser was a person always ready to help. She loved athletics and in her reports always tried to put the focus on the background of the athletes’ story. She did a lot of things which will be very difficult to compensate, if this will be at all possible in German athletics journalism. For example she regularly covered national and international junior events.

For athletics events and stories Kaiser travelled extensively and visited nearly every continent. She went to Jamaica to cover the World Junior Championships, to Canada for the World Championships, to Sydney for the Olympic Games as well as to Africa to visit Hicham El Guerruj in Morocco and Haile Gebrselassie in Ethiopia. Next year she was heading for the World Championships in Japan – but this sadly is not to be.

NB: For more on Kaiser’s career covering athletics, please read more on the Leichtathletik website.

Jörg Wenig for the IAAF