Zbigniew Pietrzykowski
Quick Facts
Biography
Zbigniew Pietrzykowski (4 October 1934 – 19 May 2014) was a Polish boxer.
Three times he took part in the Olympic Games, every time winning a medal. He won a bronze medal at Melbourne 1956 in the light middleweight division, after losing in the semi-final to Hungarian László Papp. Four years later in Rome, he reached the final of the light heavyweight division, where he lost to future heavyweight champion Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). Finally, he won a bronze medal in Tokyo in 1964, in the light heavyweight division (defeated by Russian Aleksei Kiselyov).
He participated five times at the European Amateur Boxing Championships and won five medals: a bronze in the light middleweight division at Warsaw 1953, and then four gold medals: at West Berlin 1955 in the light middleweight division, at Prague 1957 in the middleweight division, and at Lucerne 1959 and at Moscow 1963 in the light heavyweight division.
Eleven times he won the championship of Poland: in the light middleweight division in 1954, 1955 and 1956, in the middleweight division in 1957 and in the light heavyweight division in 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965.
Pietrzykowski was also a champion in relation to his performances in the national Polish team. He fought 44 times, winning 42 times and losing twice. In his career, he fought 350 fights; he won 334, drew 2 and lost 14.
Pietrzykowski was the first winner of the Aleksander Reksza Boxing Award in 1986.