Al Trautwig, who achieved prominence as the lead voice of NBC’s gymnastics coverage and a studio host for MSG Network, has died.
Trautwig’s death, which was first noted by his former MSG colleague Alan Hahn, came two days shy of his 69th birthday. There was no immediate word on the cause, but Trautwig told Newsday last year that he had been battling cancer.
During a career that spanned four decades, Trautwig was perhaps most associated with MSG Network, his employer from 1989 to 2021. He served as a studio host for MSG coverage of the Yankees, Knicks and Rangers, making his last appearance on the network in 2019.
Yet his most prominent role — by far — was as the lead voice of NBC’s gymnastics coverage for five Olympics from 2000-16. Working alongside Tim Daggett and Elfi Schlegel, Trautwig was behind the mic during an era that featured the likes of Carly Patterson in 2004, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson in 2008, and Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas in the 2010s.
As one would expect given such a prominent position, Trautwig was no stranger to criticism during his gymnastics tenure. During his final Olympic gymnastics assignment in 2016, his on-air reference to Biles’ adoptive parents as her grandparents generated social media backlash that only intensified when he defended himself by tweeting pointedly that they were “not her parents.” He later apologized, but he would work his final gymnastics event for NBC the following year.
Overall, Trautwig covered 17 Olympic Games — including 12 for NBC — with the last coming in 2018, when he called crosscountry skiing at the PyeongChang Winter Games.
Beyond his roles on MSG and NBC, Trautwig covered a wide variety of events from the NHL to US Open tennis.
