Former ski racer and two-time Olympic champion Aksel Lund Svindal (39) has testicular cancer. The Norwegian announced this on his Instagram account. The winter sports icon felt a change in his body himself and then went to the doctor. “The past few weeks have been different,” Svindal says in the post. After an initial suspected diagnosis, he was finally confronted with the disease in a hospital.

The multiple world champion has already been operated on. After the first week and many tests and screenings, he already knew that his prognosis was very good. However, he only owes all this to the decision to go to the doctor immediately after his first suspicion. That’s exactly why he made his fate public and talks about it. He wanted to draw attention to this disease.

There have also been several similar illnesses in the Bundesliga in recent weeks and months. Most recently, Jean-Paul Boetius (28) from Hertha BSC was diagnosed with a tumor on his testicles. Timo Baumgartl (26, Union Berlin), Marco Richter (24, also Hertha BSC) and Sébastian Haller (28, Borussia Dortmund) received the same shock diagnosis. Richter and Baumgartl are now back on the pitch.