SPORT FOR HOPE / Rivals and friends: How the World Transplant Games connected Erik and Elmar - CNN

Dresden, Germany played host to one of the largest gatherings of transplant athletes in the world. Roughly 1,400 athletes from 51 countries competed across 17 sports at the 2025 World Transplant Games—an Olympic-style competition that celebrates life after organ donation and transplant. Among the standout competitors were Belgium’s Erik Van Rompaye and Germany’s Elmar Sprink, two endurance athletes whose friendship and rivalry reflect the event’s deeper purpose. Van Rompaye received a liver transplant in 2021; Sprink, a heart transplant in 2012. They first met at the 2023 Games in Perth, Australia, where Van Rompaye narrowly beat Sprink for gold. When they reunited in Dresden two years later, both were racing through new challenges—nerve damage, back injuries, and the lifelong demands of immunosuppressant medication. Yet they continued to push each other toward the finish line, proving that resilience, health, and athletic excellence can flourish after transplant.