He was born in 1940 in
Częstochowa,
Poland. He started his boxing career in 1955 in the Start Częstochowa club. In 1958, he joined Poland's national team coached by
Feliks Stamm. At the
1964 Summer Olympics, he won a gold medal in the
light welterweight division (<63.5 kg) defeating
Yevgeny Frolov. In 1968, he defended his title in a close match against a Cuban boxer
Enrique Regüeiferos becoming the only Polish boxer to ever win two Olympic gold medals. He also twice won a gold medal at the European Amateur Championships in 1963 and 1965, and won a silver medal in 1967. He had a record of 317 wins, 6 draws and 25 losses. In 1976, he made an appearance in a movie
Przepraszam, czy tu biją? directed by
Marek Piwowski. In 1995, he received the Aleksander Reksza Boxing Award. In 1998, he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the
Order of Polonia Restituta by President
Aleksander Kwaśniewski for his "outstanding contributions to the Olympic movement, the development and popularization of physical culture as well as sporting achievements". In his later years, he became a politician representing various parties over the time. In 2001, as a member of
Democratic Left Alliance for electoral district of Warsaw he became a member of the Polish parliament (the Sejm) and served to 2005. He was a boxing commentator for Polish TV station
Polsat Sport. ==Death==