Ann-Katrin Berger: Twice a cancer survivor
The Paris Olympics, in many ways, represented a late international breakthrough for Berger.
After debuting for the national team at the age of 30, the Gotham FC keeper had to wait for a moment to shine, with the preferred Marle Frohms getting the call-up at major events, including the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 and FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
But selection wasn’t the only hurdle the German had to overcome en route to football’s top flight.
In 2017, Berger received her first of two thyroid cancer diagnoses, with the second coming in 2022. The condition involved surgery and therapy to treat.
Remarkably, the Germans recovered well on both occasions, but her experience with cancer has given her a renewed perspective that helps her both on and off the pitch.
“I try to live, react, and act in the moment,” she told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview. “If I think too much, it will ruin my style of play – that’s why I’ve never thought like that before, and I hope that I never will.
“In general, I don’t look so far into the future. No matter what I do, I just look at what’s in front of me. In football, you don’t know what’s going to happen – and due to my illness, I don’t know whether I might be able to continue tomorrow or not.”
She continued: “Football is just a game, there are worse things in the world. In the past, football was the be-all, end-all for me. There was nothing better and nothing more important.
“The illness has made me a bit calmer… I still hate losing, but I lose and walk away from the game after doing my best for 90 or 120 minutes, then that’s enough for me now.
“It’s best to leave the pitch as a winner, but as I said, there are bigger things out there that are more important.”