Ingemar Johansson: When the Giant Slept

In 1959 Sweden’s Ingemar Johansson knocked out champion Floyd Patterson to become the world heavyweight boxing champion. The boxing world was flabbergasted—not only had a European won, but he had done so in New York City. Moreover, this was the same man who seven years before had been branded a coward and denied a silver medal at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland.

In the Helsinki semifinals Johansson faced American Ed Sanders. During the first two rounds the Swede kept his distance and barely threw a punch. The referee dramatically intervened and disqualified Johansson, accusing him of not trying. Deeply ashamed by their countryman’s apparent cowardice, Swedes shunned Johansson on his return home. Years later, he claimed that the referee had made a massive error and that the cagey opening was a key part of his tactical game plan—two rounds of strict defense and then all-out attack in the next. His subsequent fights appear to bear him out. In his victory over Patterson, he threw no more than soft jabs early on, but in the third round he knocked the champion to the floor with his right hand—his “thunder and lightning,” as he liked to call it.

Johansson retired in 1963, assigned a place in boxing history through his professional glory. In 1982 the ghosts of his amateur past were finally laid to rest when the International Olympic Committee forgave him for his weak performance in Helsinki and awarded him his silver medal.