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Olympic medalist
Buvaisar Saitiev
Medal record
Competitor for  Russia
Men's Freestyle Wrestling
Olympic Games
Gold	Atlanta 1996	74 kg freestyle
Gold	Athens 2004	76 kg freestyle
Gold	Beijing 2008	74 kg freestyle
World Championships
Gold	Atlanta 1995	74 kg freestyle
Gold	Krasnojarsk 1997	76 kg freestyle
Gold	Tehran 1998	76 kg freestyle
Gold	Sofia 2001	76 kg freestyle
Gold	New York 2003	74 kg freestyle
Gold	Budapest 2005	74 kg freestyle
European Championships
Gold	Budapest 1996	74 kg freestyle
Gold	Warsaw 1997	76 kg freestyle
Gold	Bratislava 1998	85 kg freestyle
Gold	Budapest 2000	76 kg freestyle
Gold	Budapest 2001	76 kg freestyle
Gold	Moscow 2006	74 kg freestyle

Buvaisar Hamidovich Saitiev, also spelled Buvaysar Hamidovich Saytiev, (Chechen: Сайт КIант Бувайса) (born in March 11, 1975 in Khasavyurt, Dagestan) is a Chechen wrestler who has won nine world-level gold medals in freestyle wrestling.

Life

In 1992, Buvaisar left his hometown of Khasavyurt, Dagestan in order to train at a prestigious wrestling center in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Soon after graduating from the training center, Saitiev began his quest to represent Russia on the world stage.

Buvaisar's life philosophy has been heavily influenced by Nobel Prize-winning poet Boris Pasternak. Saitiev repeats the following poem before every match, and according to Buvaisar, the poem has defined his life both inside and outside of wrestling:^[1]

I don't think being famous is very attractive. That is not what lifts you up. You don't have to build an archive. You don't have to panic over your number of volumes. The object of a masterpiece is giving yourself away.

– Boris Pasternak, My Sister Life

Wrestling career

Saitiev has won nine world-level gold medals. He is a six-time world champion and a three-time Olympic champion. His senior-level international career began in 1995 and, to date, has continued on through the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. In thirteen years, he's entered eleven world championship tournaments, won nine world championship tournaments, and lost only two bouts.

1995

• Saitiev won a world gold medal at 74 kg in Atlanta, Georgia.

1996

• Saitiev won a gold medal at 74 kg at the European Championships, held in Budapest, Hungary.
• Saitiev won an Olympic gold medal at 74 kg in Atlanta, Georgia. He won the title after defeating Park Jang-Soon of South Korea in the championship match by a score of 5-0.
• Saitiev was named the Freestyle Wrestler of the Year by the International Wrestling Federation

1997

• Saitiev won a gold medal at 76 kg at the European Championships, held in Warsaw, Poland.
• Saitiev won a world gold medal at 76 kg in Krasnojarsk, Russia.

1998

• Saitiev won a gold medal at 85 kg at the European Championships, held in Bratislava, Slovakia.
• Saitiev won a world gold medal at 76 kg in Tehran, Iran.
• Saitiev was named the Freestyle Wrestler of the Year by the International Wrestling Federation

1999

• Saitiev did not compete in the world championships. Instead, Russia was represented by Saitiev's brother Adam Saitiev at 76 kg. Adam Saitiev won the gold.

2000

• Saitiev won a gold medal at 76 kg at the European Championships, held in Budapest, Hungary.
• Saitiev placed ninth at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia after being upset by American Brandon Slay. Slay was eventually awarded the gold medal at 76 kg.

I let this person take me down in the second round. I didn't even know who he was. I had to look him up in the Internet. I think he shouldn't have been in the Olympics at all, he was like a plane fly-by, he flew in, flew out, and he didn't have much to offer. Maybe they fed him something. He appeared, caused havoc and disappeared. Kind of like that Rulon Gardner, but Rulon at least fights there somewhere. That Slay guy disappeared for good. He's not even worth my thoughts. If somebody asks me a question about him only then do I remember, otherwise he doesn't exist for me."

– Buvaisar Saitiev, The Silent Gladiators^[2]

2001

• Saitiev won a gold medal at 76 kg at the European Championships, held in Budapest, Hungary.
• Saitiev won a world gold medal at 76 kg in Sofia, Bulgaria.

2002

• Saitiev did not compete at the world championships in 2002. He lost to Magomed Isagadjiev at the 2002 Russian Nationals. Isagadjiev went on the win a silver medal at the world championships.

2003

• Saitiev won a world gold medal at 74 kg in New York, New York.

2004

• Saitiev won an Olympic gold medal at 74 kg at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece by defeating Kazakh Gennadiy Laliyev by a score of 7-0.^[3]

2005

• Saitiev won a world gold medal at 74 kg in Budapest, Hungary.

2006

• Saitiev won a gold medal at 74 kg at the European Championships, held in Moscow, Russia.
• Saitiev wrestled at the world championships with a rib injury and did not place. He lost to Mihail Ganev of Bulgaria, Saitiev placed eighth at the tournament, after having suffered only his second loss of his international career.

2007

• Saitiev was beat out for the Russian team by Makhach Murtazaliev, who went on to win the world title. According to media reports, Saitiev's training in 2007 was hampered by a neck injury.^[4]

2008

• Saitiev won an Olympic gold medal at 74 kg at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China by defeating Soslan Tigiev of Uzbekistan.

Trivia

• Buvaisar has been decorated with the Order of Friendship by the Russian president.
• Buvaisar has many influential friends, including former Russian president Vladimir Putin, billionaire Iskander Makmudov, former President of the Chechen Republic Alu Alhanov, and Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov.^[5] But, as far as politics are concerned, Saitiev has said that he "doesn't really give a s**t ... because it is painful" for him "to see stupid, incompetent people ... trying to get into power in [his] country."^[6]
• Buvaisar's younger brother Adam is a three-time world-level gold medalist.
• Buvaisar self-identifies as a Russian Muslim.

External links

• CHECHEN FIGHT CLUB
• Buvaysar's official website
• JISS Olympic Result Database information
• ABC Sport article
• Chechnya Free.ru article
• Interview with Buvaisar Saitiev (in Russian)
• Flowrestling Video Interview with Saitiev after 2008 Olympics

Notes

1. ^ The Silent Gladiators, p. 237
2. ^ http://www.flowrestling.org/blogs/blogger/discman/3002-silent-gladiators-chapter-xxxi-chechen-fighters
3. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200408/s1187612.htm
4. ^ http://english.newslab.ru/news/213049
5. ^ http://www.kommersant.com/p752061/r_500/Ramzan_Kadyrov_Chechnya/
6. ^ The Silent Gladiators, p. 242