Jerzy Pawłowski

Jerzy Pawłowski

Personal information
Born	25 October 1932(1932-10-25) Warsaw, Poland
Died	11 January 2005(2005-01-11) (aged 72) Warsaw, Poland
Sport
Sport	Fencing
Medal record Mens' fencing Competitor for Poland Gold 1968 Mexico City Sabre Individual Silver 1956 Melbourne Sabre Individual Silver 1956 Melbourne Sabre Team Silver 1960 Rome Sabre Team Bronze 1964 Tokyo Sabre Team

Jerzy Pawłowski (Warsaw, October 25, 1932 – January 11, 2005, Warsaw) was a Polish fencer and double agent.

Life

While a major in the Polish Army, Pawłowski won the gold medal in the individual men's saber event at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, the first non-Hungarian in 48 years to win an Olympic sabre gold medal. He took part in a total of six Olympic Games from 1952 to 1972, garnering additionally three silver medals and a bronze at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics.

In 1967 the International Fencing Federation declared him the best fencer of all time.

He was arrested on April 24, 1975, and on April 8, 1976, was sentenced by a military court in Warsaw to 25 years' prison, 10 years' suspension of civic rights, demotion to private, forfeiture of all his property for having committed espionage since 1964 on behalf of an unnamed NATO country, and his name was erased from Polish sporting records. He had in fact been a double agent for the U.S. CIA from 1964, and for Polish intelligence from 1950.

Ten years later, he was to have been included in one of the spy exchanges at Berlin's Glienicke Bridge but chose to remain in Poland and spent the rest of his life as a painter and faith healer in Warsaw, where he died.

See also

• List of Poles
• List of athletes with the most appearances at Olympic Games

External links

• Biography

Awards
Preceded by Elżbieta Krzesińska	Polish Sportspersonality of the Year 1957	Succeeded by Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak
Preceded by Sobiesław Zasada	Polish Sportspersonality of the Year 1968	Succeeded by Waldemar Baszanowski