HAVANA (AP):

Cuban boxer Teofilo Stevenson, the three-time Olympic heavyweight champion with a devastating right hand and a gentlemanly demeanour, has died. He was 60.

"The Cuban sporting family was moved today by the passing of one of the greatest of all time,'' said a statement read on the news last night. He died of heart disease, it added.

Earlier a sports official, speaking on condition of anonymity lacking authorisation to pre-empt an official announcement, said Stevenson had a heart attack.

Considered by some to be the most accomplished amateur boxer in history, Stevenson first won gold in 1972 in Munich and followed that up in 1976 at Montreal.

"The Olympic Games in Munich and Montreal are the fondest memories I have from my life, the best stage of my career,'' he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

In 1980, he won his third Olympic title in Moscow, becoming the second boxer to win gold at three separate games after Hungarian Lazlo Papp. Felix Savon, Stevenson's countryman, accomplished the feat in 2000.