Medal Award: Popular Athletes Who Committed Suicide

The German football player, goalkeeper of the national team, suffered from depression, he was afraid of losing his job and his family. He was worried about every match, which had a negative effect on his psyche. When he had to leave the Catalan club Barcelona due to scandals and bury his little daughter, the past joys for the athlete completely ceased to mean anything.

“I tried to explain to him that football is not your whole life, there are many other things you can do,” said widow Teresa Encke. – She said there are no hopeless situations. We wanted to go through it all together. He must have been too responsible.”

No help worked. Robert committed suicide by throwing himself under a train that was traveling at a speed of 160 km/h towards the city of Hanover.

The German biathlete was 19 years old when she shot herself with a rifle that was probably part of her sports equipment. The reason could be psychological problems, eating disorders, failures in sports and unfulfilled hopes.

Once, during a competition, a girl was seriously injured in a collision with a tree on the slope. She took a long time to recover – physically and mentally. “While our biathletes were fighting for medals in Sochi, we received the sad news from the junior team about the death of Yulia Piper. The biathlon world is mourning the loss of a promising young talent. We express our condolences to the family and all friends of Julia, “commented the death of the athlete on the death of the sports representative of the German Biathlon Union.

In 2013, world sambo champion Ahad Rajabli hanged himself in his own home, using the black belt he had won in the sports arena instead of a rope. He sent his wife for bread and did not wait for her return.

The athlete was 51 years old. Lately he has been coaching, but thoughts of past success haunted him. The experience eventually broke the sambista’s spirit and he committed suicide.

Lucian Balan, winner of the 1986 European Cup with Romanian club Steaua, took his own life at the age of 56.

Lucian decided to commit suicide a month after his mother’s death. It was the third suicide attempt. None of the friends, relatives and fellow athletes could fully understand the reason for his act.

Alessio Bisori was one of the leaders of the Italian national handball team. A promising 24-year-old whose career was on the rise, he died at the height of his popularity.

The athlete defended the country’s honor in 54 matches. On the way to the European Championship qualifying tournament, he decided to take his own life. Bisori threw himself under the wheels of a train at Bologna Central Station.

“He wasn’t afraid of anything. I saw him two weeks ago and Alessio was full of energy and ideas,” former handball coach Giuseppe Tedesco was confused by the tragedy.

American skier Jeret Petterson was able to win the US freestyle championship and participate in the Vancouver Olympics. There he took second place, losing by a little more than a point to Belarus’ Alexey Grishin. After that, Jeret fell into depression and started abusing alcohol. He later lost a close friend and took this tragedy hard.

The athlete repeatedly admitted to relatives that he was thinking about suicide. Before taking his own life, Petterson dialed 911 and then shot himself in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun.

American football player and National League leader Kansas City Jovan Belcher committed suicide after an argument with his girlfriend. First, he shot his girlfriend in front of her mother. After arriving at the City Chiefs training stadium, he took his own life in front of the Chiefs general manager and the club boss.

In the last minutes of his life, Jovan managed to thank his colleagues for his sporting achievements and asked to take care of his two-month-old daughter. Asked to drop the gun, Balcher replied, “I have to kill myself, I can’t stay here.”

Text: Alexandra Belova

Photo: Getty Images, Shutterstock, Legion Media