Background and career
Buvaisar Hamidovich Saitiev (Russian: Бувайсар Хамидович Сайтиев, Chechen: Сайт КIант Бувайса; 11 March 1975 – 2 March 2025) was a Russian wrestler and politician. His total of nine world-level gold medals (three Olympics, six World Championships) in freestyle wrestling is second highest, behind Aleksandr Medved's 10. Saitiev is widely considered to be the greatest freestyle wrestler of all time; in 2007, he and Greco-Roman practitioner Aleksandr Karelin were voted the best wrestlers in the history of the sport by FILA.
After his retirement from competition, Saitiev served as an acting deputy from Dagestan in the 7th State Duma from 2016 until he stepped down in 2021. In 2015, he became the President of the Chechen Wrestling Federation, a position he held until his death in 2025.
