German judo commentator Dieter Gruschwitz (68) passed away

German sports commentator Dieter Gruschwitz passed away on Sunday. Gruschwitz was in sports journalism for 40 years including 21 years for German’s ZDF and twelve years as sports director of the channel that broadcasted countless Olympic Games.

In his era as ZDF sports director, Dieter Gruschwitz received numerous awards - including the 2006 German television award for the best football World Cup coverage and the horizon sports business award for the ZDF coverage of the football World Cup 2006, in which Dieter Gruschwitz believes provided the jury with "a highlight" by nominating a "formidable expert duo" with Jürgen Klopp and Urs Meier.

Gruschwitz was a former judoka and commentated many World Championships and Olympic Games, but he was more than judo. He also received a German TV prize for reporting on the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.

Dieter Gruschwitz, who was active in the German national judo team. He was West German University champion in 1977 and 1978. He won medals at German Championships and Dutch Open.

He studied journalism, Slavic studies and English in Mainz, came to the Sender Freies Berlin in 1979 and worked there first as a reporter and editor of the "Berliner Abendschau", then for over 13 years as a Reporter, editor and moderator of "Sport Fernsehen", also since 1992 as head of the "Sport Fernsehen" department.

In 1996 Dieter Gruschwitz moved from Sender Freies Berlin to ZDF in Mainz. There he was initially active as a substitute for the main editorial manager for sports and, among other things, ZDF team boss at the 1998 World Cup in France and at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

From 2005 to 2017 he headed the ZDF main editorial team for sports and was the ZDF team boss at the Summer and Winter Olympics as well as at the World and European Football Championships. Dieter Gruschwitz was 68 years old.