Buvaisar Saitiev
The greatest freestyle wrestler of all time, with nine world-level gold medals.
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Buvaisar Hamidovich Saitiev (11 March 1975 – 2 March 2025) was a Russian freestyle wrestler and politician. He won nine world-level gold medals (three Olympics, six World Championships), second only to Aleksandr Medved's 10. He is widely considered the greatest freestyle wrestler of all time; in 2007, he and Aleksandr Karelin were voted the best wrestlers in history by FILA.
Background
Saitiev was born in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, of Chechen descent. He left home in 1992 to train in Krasnoyarsk. His younger brother Adam Saitiev also became an Olympic gold medalist. Saitiev was influenced by poet Boris Pasternak, repeating his poem before every match.
He had three sons and one daughter. He died in Moscow on 2 March 2025 at age 49. The cause of death is unclear; executive director Makhmud Magomedov stated cardiac arrest, minister Mikhail Degtyarev said he had been ill, and his widow Indira said he fell from a second-storey window before death, indicating non-accidental death. He was a practicing Muslim and was buried next to his father in Khasavyurt.
Career statistics and honours
Medals
- Gold Olympic Games — 1996 Atlanta 74 kg
- Gold Olympic Games — 2004 Athens 74 kg
- Gold Olympic Games — 2008 Beijing 74 kg
- Gold World Championships — Atlanta 1995 74 kg
- Gold World Championships — Krasnoyarsk 1997 76 kg
- Gold World Championships — Tehran 1998 76 kg
- Gold World Championships — Sofia 2001 76 kg
- Gold World Championships — New York 2003 74 kg
- Gold World Championships — Budapest 2005 74 kg
- Gold European Championships — Budapest 1996 74 kg
- Gold European Championships — Warsaw 1997 76 kg
- Gold European Championships — Bratislava 1998 85 kg
- Gold European Championships — Budapest 2000 76 kg
- Gold European Championships — Budapest 2001 76 kg
Tables copied from the source article, totals included as the source gives them: Wikipedia: Buvaisar Saitiev (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wide tables scroll sideways.
Did You Know?
- He repeated Boris Pasternak's poem before every match.
- A street in Grozny was named after him in March 2025.
- The city of Eupen, Belgium, hosts an international tournament named after him since 2009.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Buvaisar Saitiev (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Statistics, medals and awards: the tables of the source article.
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