Sports journalist legend Sigi Bergmann dies

The 84-year-old died on Tuesday night after a short, serious illness in Moosburg near Klagenfurt, as the ORF and the Association of Austrian Sports Journalists announced. Bergmann had shaped local sports journalism for decades as an ORF reporter and was considered a proven boxing expert. In 2008 he received the Gold Medal of Honor for services to the Republic of Austria.

Sigismund Bergmann, born on January 3, 1938 in Vorau, Styria, began his journalistic career in the early 1960s at the Volksblatt, and in 1968 he moved to ORF as an editor. From 1969 to 1974, the historian and German scholar presented the weekly program “Sportmosaik” there. From 1975 he moderated the ORF program “Sport am Montag” for 17 years. There he liked to look beyond the sporting horizon and also invited personalities such as Peter Ustinov, Helmuth Lohner, Otto Schenk and Placido Domingo.

Sigi Bergmann (left) with ski legend Karl Schranz. © APA / R. MEIDL

Bergmann commented on around 4.000 boxing matches in his career, including Muhammad Ali's World Cup classics. He had a close friendship with the former European boxing champion Hans Orsolics since 1967. The journalist once helped the ex-athlete resocialize after his social collapse and wrote the biography “Orsolics Hansi Ko – Triumphs and Sufferings of a Boxer”.

Bergmann, who once boxed at the University of Vienna, took part in 20 Olympic Games, for the first time in Mexico in 1968. In addition to boxing, he accompanied tobogganing and skiing competitions as well as football. Although he had officially been retired since his 60th birthday, his expertise at the Olympics was still in demand on ORF. He also commented on the Olympic boxing matches in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

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Sports journalist legend Sigi Bergmann dies

The sports reporter legend Sigi Bergmann is dead.

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