Zygmunt Chychła (5 November 1926 – 26 September 2009) was a Polish boxer. He won the first post-World War II Olympic gold medal for Poland.
Career
In 1939 he began training at the Polish boxing club ''
Gedania'', having started boxing at the age 12.
During the war he lost his
Gdańsk
Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...
citizenship and was compulsorily conscripted into the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
in 1944.
In France he deserted and joined the 2nd Polish Army, led by general
Władysław Anders
Władysław Albert Anders (11 August 1892 – 12 May 1970) was a Polish military officer and politician, and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London.
Born in Krośniewice-Błonie, then part of the Russian Empire, he serv ...
, in Italy.
He returned to Poland in 1946.
In 1947, he made his debut with the national boxing team of Poland, led by famous coach
Feliks Stamm. He started at the 1948 London
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
and reached the quarterfinal. In 1951 he won the
European Amateur Boxing Championships in Milan. He was chosen the best
Polish Sportspersonality of the Year in a Plebiscite of the ''Sport Review''.
Chychła won the gold medal at the
1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland.
After Japan declared in ...
in Helsinki beating in the final a representative of the Soviet Union,
Sergei Scherbakov.
On the way to the final, he won against
Július Torma (Czechoslovakia), the Olympic Champion from London in 1948 and the European Champion from Oslo in 1949. In the same year he was again selected by the Plebiscite of the ''
Przegląd Sportowy''.
After the Olympic Games, he found out that he was ill with
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
.
He decided to resign from sports. However, not wanting to lack a competitor at the
1953 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Warsaw, the Polish sports authorities introduced him by mistake, claiming that the disease had backed off. He again won the gold medal there. However, due to lack of treatment, Chychła's tuberculosis worsened, causing a considerable pit in his lungs. Debilitated, he ended his sporting career in 1953. In the early 1970s, he emigrated to Germany.
He boxed 17 times for the national team of Poland (15 fights won and 2 lost). In his career, he fought 263 fights: 241 won, 10 tied, and 12 lost.
He was awarded the Honourable Citizen of City of Gdańsk title in 2003.
Zygmunt Chychła died on 26 September 2009 in Senior's House in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
.
Statistics
Chychła won the
welterweight gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic games.
Olympic results
*Defeated
Pierre Wouters (Belgium) 3–0
*Defeated
José Luis Dávalos Noriega (Mexico) 3–0
*Defeated
Július Torma (Czechoslovakia) 2–1
*Defeated
Günther Heidemann (West Germany) 2–1
*Defeated
Sergei Scherbakov (Soviet Union) 3–0
See also
*
Boxing at the 1952 Summer Olympics
References
External links
Olympic DB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chychla, Zygmunt
1926 births
2009 deaths
German military personnel of World War II
Polish military personnel of World War II
Welterweight boxers
Boxers at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Boxers at the 1952 Summer Olympics
Olympic boxers for Poland
Olympic gold medalists for Poland
Boxers from Gdańsk
Olympic medalists in boxing
People from the Free City of Danzig
Naturalized citizens of Germany
Polish emigrants to Germany
Polish male boxers
Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics
20th-century Polish sportsmen