Zygmunt Chychła

Zygmunt Chychła 1948

Zygmunt Chychła , German Siegmund Chychla , (born November 6, 1926 in Danzig , † September 26, 2009 in Hamburg , Germany ) was a Polish boxer of Kashubian descent. He was Olympic champion in Helsinki in 1952 and European champion in 1951 in Milan and 1953 in Warsaw of the amateurs in the welterweight division.

Career

Zygmunt Chychła started boxing at a Polish boxing club in Gdansk in 1937 . His first trainer there was Bruno Karnath. After the German occupation of Danzig in 1939, he boxed for the SV Danzig police. His coach there was H. Sommerfeld. In 1942 he started at the German youth championship in Breslau . There he was able to achieve a victory over Pancek from "Heros" Hamburg , but not place himself among the medal winners.

Shortly before the end of the war he was drafted into the German armed forces. In 1944 he was able to join the Polish army of General Anders in France , of which he was a member of the Second Corps until 1946. He then returned to Gdansk and started boxing again. At a height of 1.70 m, he had grown into a welter weight with a body weight of approx. 67 kg. He was soon noticed by the Polish national coach Feliks (Felix) Stamm, who appointed him to the Polish national relay in 1947.

Zygmunt Chychła was sent to the European Championships in Dublin as early as 1947 . There he was not able to place himself in the front field. His first use in an international competition took place on October 12, 1947 in Warsaw . He met the multiple Soviet champion Sergei Tscherbakow , to whom he was defeated on points.

1948 Zygmunt Chychła was the first time Polish welterweight champion. In the same year he took part in the first post-war Olympic Games in London . He won there in the round of 16 over Alexander Obeyesekere from Ceylon by knockout in the second round, but lost in the quarterfinals to the Italian Alessandro d'Ottavio and so remained without a medal.

In 1949 Zygmunt Chychła repeated his title win at the Polish championship. At the European Championships in Oslo he was not at the start.

In 1950 he won his third Polish championship title. In 1951 he was sent to the European Championships in Milan . At the age of 24 he was at the height of his skills. In Milan he won the round of 16 over Fritz Biehler from the Federal Republic of Germany , in the quarter-finals over Pierre Wouters from Belgium , in the semifinals over Gert Strahle from Sweden and in the final over Hans Kohlegger from Austria on points and became European champion .

1952 Zygmunt Chychła won the Polish welterweight championship for the fourth time. With a lot of self-confidence, he then went to the Olympic Games in Helsinki . Well prepared and prepared by Felik's tribe, he defeated Pierre Wouters and José Luis Davalos from Mexico safely on points. In the quarter-finals and in the semi-finals he was a little lucky that he was awarded points wins with 2: 1 judges' votes over Július Torma from Czechoslovakia and Günther Heidemann from Germany . In the final, however, he again clearly won 3-0 judges' votes over Sergei Tscherbakow and thus became Olympic champion .

In 1953 the European Amateur Boxer Championship took place in Warsaw. He was back in action there and became European champion for the second time with wins over Günther Heidemann, Nicolae Linca from Romania and Sergei Tscherbakow.

After this European Championship, Zygmunt Chychła ended his career as an active boxer. He had contested 264 fights and achieved 237 victories. In 1951 and 1952 he was voted Polish Sportsman of the Year. He trained as a trainer and then worked as a trainer in Gdansk.

In 1957 Zygmunt Chychła submitted an application to the Federal Republic of Germany (family reunification) to the competent Polish authorities . From then on he was only allowed to train smaller and insignificant clubs in the area of ​​Gdansk. The Polish authorities allowed themselves 15 years to approve the exit application before Zygmunt Chychła was allowed to leave Germany with his wife and three sons at the end of 1972. There he settled in Kassel . But that he was not forgotten in Poland was shown in 2003 when he received a high award from the city of Gdansk.

Country battles Zygmunt Chychłas

• 1947 in Warsaw , Poland against the Soviet Union , defeat against Sergei Tscherbakow ,
• 1947 in Prague , Czechoslovakia against Poland, points winner over Oldrich Koudela,
• 1947 in Poznań , Poland against Hungary , point defeat against Jozsef Marton,
• 1948 in Budapest , Hungary against Poland, points winner over Gustav Bene,
• 1948 in Poznań, Poland against Czechoslovakia, points winner over Vojtech Krocak,
• 1949 in Wrocław , Poland against Hungary, points winner over Laszlo Zahorsky,
• 1949 in Gottwaldov , Czechoslovakia against Poland, demolition winner 2nd round over Karel Blesak,
• 1949 in Helsinki , Finland against Poland, points winner over Klaus Tiljander,
• 1950 in Wrocław, Poland against Finland, points winner over Mauno Laine,
• 1950 in Budapest, Hungary against Poland, points winner over Pál Budai ,
• 1950 in Łódź , Poland against Czechoslovakia, points winner over Oldrich Koudela,
• 1952 in Poznań, Poland against Hungary, points winner over Laszlo Zahorsky,
• 1952 in Moscow , Poland against GDR , points winner over Josef Kachorowski,
• 1952 in Moscow, Poland against Czechoslovakia, points winner over Frantisek Capl,
• 1952 in Helsinki, Poland against Finland, points winner over Pentti Kuntola

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 1950 to 1953,
• Box Sport magazine No. 2 from January 17, 1973, page 17,
• BOX ALMANACH 1920–1980 , publisher of the German Amateur Boxing Association, 1980,
• Website "amateur-boxing.strefa.pl",
• Website "www.wiezda.servis.pl",
• Website "www.olimpijski.pl"

Web links

• Zygmunt Chychła in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait of Zygmunt Chychla (Polish)