Payao Poontarat, 49, a champion boxer who in 1976 won Thailand's first Olympic medal, died Sunday of Lou Gehrig's disease at a Bangkok hospital.
Poontarat was 19 when he captured a bronze medal at the Montreal Games. The onetime flower seller from the beach town of Bangsapan was celebrated as a national hero after his Olympic triumph. He later held the World Boxing Council super-flyweight crown.
