ZDF reporter Michael Pfeffer had a fatal accident

Michael Pfeffer is dead. The former TV reporter died in a sports accident in Rio de Janeiro.

The 67-year-old reported on the world's biggest sporting events for decades. He worked at the Olympic Games, the Tour de France and numerous winter sports competitions before regularly ending his career after the 2024 Summer Games in Paris as part of a generational change in the sports editorial team.

His connection to the Tour of France was particularly close: from 1998 to 2011 he reported on the cycling race together with his ZDF colleague Peter Leissl. Leissl now said farewell with moving words to a friend who loved life - and was always looking for risk.

Pfeffer leaves behind his wife and two children

Among other things, Leissl reports on a deep snow descent in Vail, USA, in 1999, where Pfeffer fainted and fell. But he fought back. Leissl describes him as a “stand-up guy” who didn’t let other accidents get him down.

Until “that fatal moment in the surf off Rio,” as Leissl writes. "Did you, dear Michael, tempt fate a little too much in your willingness to take risks and even in your obsession with speed?"

Pfeffer leaves behind his wife Sylvia, who comes from Brazil, and their children Clara and Matteo. Daughter Clara is also a journalist and is following in her father's professional footsteps. His son Matteo inherited his passion for sports.