Former Olympian Paweł Kakietek dies at 51, six-time Polish boxing champion

A career built in Warsaw

Paweł Kakietek boxed in the light middleweight and middleweight classes and won six Polish individual titles between 1996 and 2002. He also took silver at the national championships in 1998 and bronze in both 1994 and 1995. He represented Gwardia Warsaw, which won the team silver medal at the Polish championships in 1999. He joined Gwardia as a 14-year-old, trained by Paweł Skrzecz, and at 17 he claimed bronze at the Polish junior championships. A year later he won junior gold, and he then became the national youth champion, which opened the way to international competition.

International results

At the prestigious Feliks Stamm Memorial he stood on the podium four times, winning gold in 1999 and 2000, silver in 1994 and bronze in 1998. He went to the Sydney Olympics in 2000, where he won his first bout by stoppage against China's Abuduyehemanem, with the contest halted at 18:3. He then lost 7:21 to the American Jeffrey Lacy. Lacy was eliminated in the quarter-finals but later became a professional world champion, holding the IBF super middleweight title from 2004 to 2006 and an IBO title in 2005 and 2006. The federation also counted a 2001 appearance at the world championships in Belfast among his career achievements.

Illness and death

Kakietek was diagnosed with a malignant stomach tumour in 2025, after a gastroscopy, and underwent chemotherapy. His family looked for other treatment options, and fundraising was opened on the Siepomaga platform to pay for them. That page later announced his death and described a long and difficult fight with cancer. After his sporting career he worked as a police officer. He died at the age of 51.

Tribute from the federation

The Polish Boxing Federation announced the death on Saturday, 7 November, and said the Polish boxing community was grieving deeply. Its statement read:

“The Polish boxing community is deeply saddened by the loss of a decorated athlete who for years was a pillar of Poland's strength in domestic and international rings.”

The federation credited him with technical training, iron fitness and strength of character. The statement appeared on its website and on social media. The Siepomaga page called him a legend of Gwardia Warsaw and said he was now in a place without pain or suffering.