Teófilo Stevenson Lawrence was a Cuban amateur boxer and engineer. Stevenson is one of only three boxers to win three Olympic gold medals, alongside Hungarian László Papp and fellow Cuban Félix Savón.
Background
Teófilo Stevenson Lawrens was born on March 29, 1952, in Delicias-Puerto Madre, Cuba, and spent his early years on the island of Jamaica. His parents, who were agricultural workers, moved to Cuba in the late 1950s and settled in the southern community of Antonio Guiteras, where they worked for the Central Delicias sugar mill. His father, who had been raised in St. Vincent, and his Jamaican mother spoke English at home and their five children learned Spanish outside the home, interacting with neighborhood children.
Education
Stevenson was always tall for his age and once in Cuba, participated in government-run school sports programs. However, it was a Soviet track coach who discovered the tall, lanky Stevenson playing basketball in the mid-1960s. Observing his long, strong arms, he suggested to the Cubans that Stevenson be placed in the school's boxing program. By the time Stevenson was 14, he was participating in his first boxing tournament. Although he was still a few inches short of his adult 6 5 frame, he was very skinny, weighing 137 pounds. However, from the very beginning he seemed to move around tire ring with great ease. During his late teens, he developed his trademark right-hand punch, which he used very successfully against all of his opponents in his first Olympics in 1972, where he won his first gold medal.
Career
In 1976 Stevenson arrived at the Montreal Olympics with the Amateur World Heavyweight and the Pan American Games boxing titles under his belt. At Montreal, he defeated his first three opponents. For those first three bouts, he had spent a total of 7 minutes and 22 seconds in the ring. Towering over most of his opponents, he would wait until they tired of evading his punches and then brought out his trademark right-hand punch, knocking them out in the third and final round of the bouts to take home his second Olympic gold medal. In 1980 he laced up his gloves once again for the Moscow Olympics and in the final round defeated his Russian opponent and became the first boxer to win three Olympic golds in one division.
He was expected to box in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, but Cuba was one of the many countries to boycott the games that year. By 1987, at 35 years old and with a 1983 defeat to an American boxer at the North American Championships, many had dismissed him. However, that year at the World Championships held in Reno, Nevada, Stevenson won all four initial bouts and made it to the finals, where his punch described by a sports-writer as a "shotgun right hand" knocked out his opponent twice and on two occasions sent him staggering to the ropes until the referee finally stopped the fight. At 35, Stevenson had once again won the World Championship Heavy weight amateur boxing title and declared "the king of amateur boxing".
In socialist Cuba, Stevenson has been well rewarded for the glory he has brought to the island. On retiring in 1986 Stevenson became an advisor to Cuba's National Institute for Sports, Physical Education and Recreation, and has served as vice-president of Cuba's boxing federation. Stevenson enjoys legendary status on the island, as well as a personal relationship with Fidel Castro, at whose side he is often found trading mock punches for spectators at sports matches and awards ceremonies.
Stevenson died on 11 June 2012 of a heart attack in Havana at the age of 60. It was first reported by Cuban state media, stating that "the Cuban sporting family was moved today by the passing of one of the greatest of all time".
