Jerzy Pawłowski 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 . Biography . Pawlowski was born in Warsaw in 1932 and studied law at university there . He also joined the army , eventually rising to the rank of major . He took to fencing comparatively late , as a 16 - year - old , concentrating on sabre . By 1953 he was runner - up in the world under - 21 championships and was part of the team that took bronze at the senior world championships , Poland ' s first such success since 1934 . At the next championships , he came fourth in the individual event behind three Hungarians , who had long exerted a stranglehold on sabre fencing . At the 1956 Olympics , Pawlowski took silver , and the following year won the world title outright , a success he would repeat in 1965 and 1966 , as well as winning Olympic gold in 1968 . In 1959 the Polish team , with Pawlowski its spearhead , finally upset the Hungarians to win the gold medal , which they did again in 1961 , 1962 and 1963 . Pawlowski was slightly built and about five feet nine inches tall , but he was exceptionally graceful , his body advancing and retreating with such control that his torso seemed not to move as his legs carried him away from his opponent . He would do crazy actions , just so he could get the final hit with a flick to the wrist or such a simple movement that the audience would gasp at his audacity . And then a courteous smile , a nod of the head , and a knowing look , as if he and the onlookers were sharing some special secret . By the 1970s the lightning - fast tearaway had been replaced by a supreme technician with the footwork of a dancer . A rival team manager reckoned Pawlowski had eight different ways of moving forward - each calculated to induce a different reaction . One team mate recalls Pawlowski ' s lessons with his Hungarian coach , Janos Kevey , their blades moving so fast that even an experienced onlooker could not follow the action . Kevey took to teaching Pawlowski with sabres in each hand : " Why waste time ? " he would say . Pawlowski just got faster . He was not only a hero among fencers . His book on the Olympics , Trud olimpijskiego zlota ( " The Burden of Olympic Gold " , 1973 ) , his regular appearances on television and his talks to sports clubs and army units made him popular all over Poland . He received the highest decorations the state could bestow , and under his auspices fencing grew into one of his country ' s most popular sports . He was made president of Polish fencing while still an active team member . In the mid - 1960s , when he was completing his law studies , he drove around in a Mercedes 300 - the same car as the country ' s prime minister . He lived in the centre of Warsaw in a five - room apartment full of antique furniture , expensive books and good paintings . He spoke several languages with ease , and his mischievous charm won him friends worldwide . Pawlowski seemed never - ageing . In all , he was a world finalist 17 times . In 1973 he reached the final ( that is , a round - robin of six fencers ) for the last time , aged 42 , and only narrowly missed a medal , nearly 20 years after his first . But the following year he was eliminated in the quarter - finals , and never represented his country again . Then he simply disappeared , " as if he had fallen through the earth " , as a Polish reporter put it . News leaked out over that summer that he had been arrested " for crimes against the interests of the state " . It leaked out that during 1974 a Nato spy had confessed that one of his five co - agents was " Pawel " - Pawlowski ' s principal nickname ( although he had several others , including " Gracz " , " The Card Player " , because of his fondness for poker ) . Just before he was taken into custody , Pawlowski had been pronounced the most outstanding sportsman his country had produced in more than a decade . Time magazine called him " the undisputed sports hero of Poland " . Thus , as Neue Züricher Zeitung put it , " the news of his arrest shocked the Polish public , especially the army and young people , for whom he was almost a national idol " . Almost immediately , influential figures in the government and in the army tried to cover up the affair , but the Russian representative to the Warsaw Pact High Command demanded the death penalty . Pawlowski was interrogated for two and a half months and eventually put on trial by a military tribunal , meeting in secret . It gave him a sentence that had no standing under Polish law - 25 years ' imprisonment , for espionage " on behalf of an undesignated Nato country " . There was talk that Pawlowski avoided death because he used to go shooting - he was a fine marksman - with Wojciech Jaruzelski , the Polish premier ; but the court declared that he had been spared because he had admitted his crimes , revealed his contacts and provided a detailed account of his spying activities . Another of his friends , the acclaimed writer Jerzy Kosinski , introduced the affair into his 1977 novel Blind Date , which tells of " JP . . . the greatest fencer of all time " , who is arrested and taken to a " military fortress " , where he has his fencing arm broken by his interrogator . In the absence of official versions this totally fictitious description became accepted as an accurate account . Pawlowski ' s arrest had immediate repercussions . A number of other officers were tried and sentenced on similar charges . Some 120 Polish fencers were interrogated . Several senior officers were replaced , and even the head of the Polish navy was relieved of his post . As to what secrets a sportsman could have access , Pawlowski knew several senior officers as friends and moved in exalted circles ; he was said to have passed on radar codes for military aircraft . His celebrity gave him little leverage in prison . According to his own account , there were seven men in his cell , paedophiles , psychopaths and mentally deranged prisoners - " the worst types - people on the edge of society " . He was allowed 112 Polish zloty ( under one GBP ) a week , one letter a month , two parcels a year . He took up watercolours , first painting with his prison toothbrush , and became so adept that he was later to exhibit his work widely . He also became unofficial lawyer to the other inmates , helping them with their letters to the authorities . One prisoner who was serving a life sentence for murder became Pawlowski ' s chess partner . He suffered from head pains , and one day Pawlowski laid his hands on the man ' s head . The migraines never returned . After his release in June 1985 Pawlowski practised his healing gifts at one of Warsaw ' s main hospitals . By then in his mid - fifties , he also took up fencing again . Soon after he was freed , he went to one of the main Warsaw clubs , challenged the young bloods and won nearly every fight . A few weeks later he entered a classification tournament and just missed the final . Next was the Polish national championships ; but parents of young fencers complained that they did not want their sons shaking hands with a traitor . That was the last time he attempted to fence in competition . He was married three times , lastly to Iwonka , his wife for over 40 years . After her husband was taken into custody , she was told that her work as an obstetrician would be imperilled unless she filed for divorce . She refused , and soon after lost her job . Only after Pawlowski ' s release did she start working again . When Pawlowski first got out of prison , he tried to clear his name , planning to take on the minister who had been in charge of investigating him . For a while the government did nothing , but after Pawlowski started making speeches proclaiming his innocence his trial papers were released , and in 1991 a leading magazine , Prawo i Zycie ( " Law and Life " ) , revealed that since August 1955 Pawlowski had been spying for the state against his own team mates - telling the security services which athletes were planning to defect , who supported Israel in the Middle East war , who might be open to approaches . His spying ceased abruptly in March 1962 , when it was judged that he was using his position " for personal gain " . These and similar articles were even more damaging than the original charges . In 1994 Pawlowski wrote a second , self - justifying book , Najdluzszy Pojedynek ( " My Longest Duel " ) , exclusively about his days as a spy . As a young boy he had been part of the 1944 Warsaw uprising , he wrote , and that same wish for freedom had remained his motivation . He also detailed " countermeasures " against him by the KGB , including two assassination attempts . In 2000 , he considered legal action against two journalists who he considered had libelled him , and was only persuaded to remain silent when he was told that the government had evidence that while in jail he had agreed to spy against Solidarity prisoners . Thereafter he kept to his painting , his healing work , and his memories . Before his arrest , Pawlowski had fame , unlimited travel , and a pampered life in Poland . He was a Polish zloty billionaire , with money from part - share of a restaurant and from a sheep farm he owned . So what made him spy ? " My heart is Polish , my mind American , " he would say ; but East European fencers laughed at the idea of his motive being ideological : " With Jerzy it was always money . " " Jerzy always liked to take risks , " a long - time friend and rival explained : Gambling made life more interesting , made the adrenalin run - and if that could be combined with getting more money and hurting the Russians so much the better . But taking risks was at the heart of it : it ' s what made him such a good fencer .