Payao, Kingdom's first Olympic hero, dies at 50
Thailand's first Olympic medal winner Payao Poontarat passed away yesterday after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 50.
Police Captain Payao, a former boxing hero and former MP for Prachuap Khiri Khan province, died at about 4pm yesterday at Siriraj Hospital, according to his wife Adawan Poontarat. A funeral bathing rite is scheduled for 5pm today at Tritossathep Temple in central Bangkok. Payao became one of Thailand's most celebrated national heroes when he won the bronze in the light flyweight boxing class at the 1976 Olympics in Canada, the first Olympic medal in the country's history. Boosted by his Olympic win, Payao rose to further heights in the international arena and won the World Boxing Council's super flyweight world championship title in 1983. After retiring from boxing, Payao entered politics under the Democrat Party's banner and was elected as an MP from his native Prachuap Khiri Khan province in 2001. He began suffering from ALS about a year after his election and had since been receiving regular medical treatment.
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