Józef Lipień

Józef Lipień was born on 6 February 1949 in Jaczków, near Kamienna Góra in Lower Silesia, one of several children of Michał and Irena Lipień. He was a twin; his brother Kazimierz was born a few minutes before him.

Both boys played athletics and handball at primary school. Józef went on to the building trades school in Jelenia Góra, where his teacher Juliusz Jaszczuk introduced him to wrestling, largely by chance. He later qualified as a wrestling coach through the coaching programme at the Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw.

He wrestled for Karkonosze Jelenia Góra from 1965 to 1967 and then for Wisłoka Dębica from 1967 to 1980, a club that had gathered many of Poland's best wrestlers. His coaches included Tadeusz Popiołek, Czesław Korzeń and the national coach Janusz Tracewski.

He was selected for the Olympic team at 19 and competed in Greco-Roman wrestling at 57 kg at four Games: Mexico City 1968, where he placed 16th; Munich 1972, eighth; Montreal 1976, tenth; and Moscow 1980, where he won the silver medal after losing the final to Shamil Serikov of the Soviet Union.

At the 1973 World Championships in Tehran he and his twin brother both won gold medals. He was world runner-up in 1974 and 1975 and won bronze at the 1978 European Championships, and he was an eight-time Polish champion. For most of his career he wrestled below his natural weight so as not to compete directly with Kazimierz, which meant a long and demanding regime of diet and weight cutting.

After ending his competitive career in 1981 he coached in Frederikshavn, Denmark, from 1983 to 1984, in Hörby, Sweden, from 1984 to 1988, and at Wisłoka Dębica from 1997 to 2000.

He was married to Bogusława, to whom the town of Dębica sent its condolences on his death. His twin brother Kazimierz, Olympic champion in Montreal in 1976, died in 2005. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1983 and twice received the gold Medal for Outstanding Sporting Achievement.

Józef Lipień died on Sunday 25 October 2026, aged 77. His death was announced by the town of Dębica, which said he would be remembered as a man of great passion, determination and sporting spirit, and was confirmed by the Polish Wrestling Federation. The place and cause of death were not made public, and funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time of the first reports.

Lipień is remembered as one of the most successful Polish wrestlers, and with his brother as half of one of the most remarkable twin partnerships in the sport, both crowned world champions at the same championships in Tehran in 1973. Dębica, where he spent most of his career, named a square after the brothers, declared 2024 the Year of the Lipień Brothers and unveiled a statue of the twins in July 2025.