Vadym Gutzeit

Vadym Gutzeit (Вадим Маркович Гутцайт; also Vadym Guttsayt or Vadym Markovych Huttsayt; born 6 October 1971) is a Ukrainian Olympic champion sabre fencer, and former Ukraine's Youth and Sport Minister, as well as the president of the Ukrainian Fencing Federation and the President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.

In 1988 he became USSR Junior Sabre Champion.

He was world junior sabre champion in 1989 and 1990, fenced in three Olympic Games, was sabre team Olympic champion in 1992, won a bronze medal in the 1991 World Fencing Championships, and was the 2005 Maccabiah Games sabre champion.

Gutzeit won the gold medal in the Junior Under-20 Sabre World Fencing Championships in both 1989 and 1990.

In 1991, he won a silver medal in the same event.

That year he also won an individual bronze medal, and a Unified Team silver medal, in sabre at the 1991 senior World Fencing Championships.

He competed at four Universiade competitions, winning five medals between 1991 and 1999, with gold medals in the individual sabre events in 1997 and 1999.

Gutzeit is an Olympic champion, and has competed in three Olympics.

He competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for the Unified Team (the former Soviet Union) at the age of 20, and won a gold medal with the sabre team.

Gutzeit is also a Ukrainian Honored Master of Sports (1992) and Honored Coach of Ukraine.

In 1993, he graduated from the Kyiv State Institute of Physical Culture.

In 1993–2002, he served as a major in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

He is married to Ukrainian journalist, radio and TV presenter, Oksana Gutzeit.

They have two children.

Gutzeit took up fencing at the age of nine.

He won the Ukrainian national sabre championship when he was 15.

He fenced for Dynamo (Kiev).

He also competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, this time for Ukraine, finishing 6th in the individual sabre event after being defeated 14–15 in the quarter-finals by Russia's Stanislav Pozdnyakov, who eventually won the competition.

Gutzeit, who is Jewish, competed for Ukraine at the 1997 Maccabiah Games in Israel.

In 1997, Gutzeit was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit III, in 2008 he received the award "For Merit" II, and in 2012 he received the award "For Merit" I. In 2004, he received the honorary title of "Honored Worker of Physical Culture and Sports of Ukraine."

Seeded No. 13, he lost 10–15 in the table of 16 to 1998 world champion Domonkos Ferjancsik of Hungary.

In the sabre team competition, he and Ukraine finished 6th.

Gutzeit took part in his third Olympiad at the 2000 Sydney Games, for Ukraine.

He has since officiated in a number of major competitions, including the 2000, 2004, 2012, and 2021 Olympics.

He was vice president of the Ukrainian Fencing Federation from 2000 to 2016, has been President of the Federation since 2017, and has been a member of the executive committee of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine since 2004.

He also competed in the 2001 Maccabiah Games in Israel, and won the silver medal in individual sabre.

He was defeated in the gold medal final by Sergey Sharikov of Russia.

He has been an international referee for the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) since 2002.

From 2002 to 2010, Gutzeit was the head coach of Ukraine's fencing team, which won an Olympic gold medal in women's team sabre in 2008.

Gutzeit became an international referee in 2002 in all weapons for the International Fencing Federation.

Gutzeit won the gold medal at the 2005 Maccabiah Games, reaping revenge over Sharikov of Russia, as Ukraine also won the team sabre gold medal.

In 2010-2020, Gutzeit was the executive director of the Ukrainian Olympic Training and Sports Center.

Gutzeit was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the FIE in 2013.

Gutzeit was born in Kyiv into a Jewish family.

Gutzeit was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime in 2013.

In 2014 Gutzeit said: "I, an Olympic champion, want to appeal to all the people of Ukraine and Russia! ... I won the Olympic Games in 1992 as part of the CIS combined team .... We respected and loved each other! We were like brothers.... I ask all the politicians of the two countries! We must be friends and respect each other .... And each of us deserves to live happily in our own land."

In 2016, he received the Insignia of the President of Ukraine.

On 26 June 2018, Gutzeit was appointed head of the Kyiv City Council's (Kyiv City State Administration) Department of Youth and Sports.

Since March 2020, Gutzeit has been Ukraine's Youth and Sport Minister.

He held the position until March 2020.