Silver medallist and social media star

“It’s too hot here,” thought Leo Neugebauer when he got off the plane in Austin in 2019. At that moment, the German athlete didn’t realise that the place he had landed was actually perfect for him. 

At the Olympic Games in Paris, the Görlitz native won a silver medal in the decathlon. In June 2024, Neugebauer broke his own German decathlon record by 125 points, gaining 8,961 points at the NCAA Championships in Eugene – the title competition for American college and university students. Setting a new annual best, this put the 2023 world number five in sixth place in the all-time best list. He is also the best college athlete in the USA and is on the shortlist for Bowerman, the highest honour awarded annually to university athletes. His coach at the University of Texas believes the German is capable of much more. As Jim Garnham says: “If everything falls into place, he could achieve things that no one before him has ever achieved”. 

The perfect combination of sport and study in Texas

The son of a Cameroonian father and a German mother first attracted attention in 2017 when he won bronze at the U18 World Championships. He heard from a friend about the possibility of a sports scholarship overseas. The more he found out about it, the more attractive it seemed to him to secure a place at an educational establishment where sport and studies can be perfectly combined. He visited a number of universities, travelling to Iowa and Minnesota. At first, they all looked the same to him. But Austin seemed somewhat different – it was the perfect choice. 

Thanks to its successful football team, the Texas Longhorns, the University of Texas has a sports budget of almost 220 million euros, which is larger than that of the entire German Athletics Association. Neugebauer trains twice a day using state-of-the-art facilities. There are specialists for all disciplines. Medical staff are available to deal with the slightest ailment, and there is someone to consult for every problem he has. 

In addition to pursuing a full degree programme, he receives rent subsidies and pocket money from the university. He lives two minutes from the campus, where everything is just a few minutes away on foot or on his little scooter. 

Mentors help students cope with their studies: they’re only allowed to pursue their sport if they keep up with their academic work. Assistants draw up Neugebauer’s daily schedules and study plans, also taking care of clothing, new contact lenses and a balanced diet. “You get so much support here, so that’s definitely an advantage that I’m happy to make the most of,” says Neugebauer. He has completed his degree in economics, which means his resident permit is now due to expire.  Neugebauer wants to stay in the USA. “It makes no sense to change my working system,” he says.

Enjoying the Austin lifestyle

He has come to love the warm weather in his adopted home, and the university is located at the heart of a city he thinks is great. “Every single year that I’ve been here, I’m happier that I made this decision,” says Neugebauer. At university he meets top athletes from other sports, sees Olympic champion strolling past, sits next to them at lunch. “I’m just a normal guy among these great athletes here,” he says, full of enthusiasm. 

Originally from a small village near Stuttgart, Neugebauer makes extensive use of the opportunities in the city: he goes go-karting, plays golf and attends comedy shows, for example. His favourite places are coffee shops, where he likes to simply hang out or work.

He particularly enjoys the special way of life in the city on the Colorado River, where “somehow everyone is always in a good mood”. He likes this vibe, he says: the university is like a family to him. 

When “Leo the German”, as he is nicknamed, gets up at 6 a.m., he takes a look at his daily schedule before breakfast – the first of seven meals a day. “I like structure,” says Neugebauer. His room is full of little pieces of note paper with details of things he’s like to do – “mental training”, “drink a whole bottle of water in the morning”, “listen to jazz”. He doesn’t manage to fit many of these things into his daily routine on a regular basis. “But I like writing lists” – he says he spends about ten minutes on them twice a week. 

On the way to campus, he often makes a detour to a square behind the library. This is where the fashion-conscious young man likes to take selfies dressed in the outfit of the day, which he then posts on social media. Since he has been living in America, his involvement in this area has increased significantly: he now has more than 290,000 followers. “It gives me something to do that I can work on outside of sport,” says Neugebauer. “I love being creative.” 

Potential in American football

Combined with his outstanding stats, his appearance, a height of two metres and an atypically heavy build for a decathlete have already attracted the attention of numerous football coaches who’d like to poach him. “If he’d grown up in the USA, he’d never have ended up in athletics,” Garnham believes, saying he would have been first choice for the National Football League, the NFL. Neugebauer is too good to switch over now. But who knows, says the youngster who is now happily settled in the USA. Perhaps he’d take up football after his career as an all-rounder in athletics, he says, adding that there are so many opportunities for him in the USA.