Buvaisar Hamidovich Saitiev, also spelled Buvaysar Hamidovich Saytiev, (Russian: Бувайсар Хамидович Сайтиев, Chechen: Сайт КIант Бувайса) (born March 11, 1975) is a Russian retired freestyle wrestler of Chechen heritage, who represented Russia, and won nine world-level gold medals in freestyle wrestling (second highest, behind Aleksandr Medved's ten). He is widely considered as the greatest freestyle wrestler of all time.[1][2][3][4] He currently is an acting State Duma Deputy from Dagestan.[5][6][7]
In 1992, Buvaisar left his hometown of Khasavyurt, Dagestan in order to train at a prestigious wrestling center in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. His younger brother Adam Saitiev would follow in his footsteps.
Soon after graduating from the training center, Saitiev began his quest to represent Russia on the world stage. Buvaisar has been decorated with the Order of Friendship by the Russian president. His younger brother Adam Saitiev, also a wrestler, won gold in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
Buvaisar's life philosophy has been heavily influenced by Nobel Prize-winning poet Boris Pasternak. Saitiev repeats Pasternak's poem, "It is not seemly to be famous,[8]" before every match, and according to Buvaisar, the poem has defined his life both inside and outside of wrestling.[9]
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 1994 and continued on through the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. In thirteen years, he competed in eleven World or Olympic championship tournaments, winning nine gold medals at those events and losing only two bouts. Buvaisar won at the World championships in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2003 and 2005, and at the Olympics in 1996, 2004 and 2008.
His only two losses at the World or Olympic championships were in 1994, to Iranian wrestler Davoud Ghanbari at the 1994 Wrestling World Cup at the age of 18, and in 2000, to American wrestler Brandon Slay at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In 1999, Buvaisar did not wrestle at the World championships, instead his weight class was represented by his younger brother Adam Saitiev, who went on to win the gold medal. Saitiev also did not compete at the World championships in 2002, after having lost to Magomed Isagadjiev at the 2002 Russian Nationals. Isagadjiev went on the win a silver medal at the World championships. In 2007, Makhach Murtazaliev beat Saitiev to a spot on the Russian team and went on to win the World title. According to media reports, Saitiev's training in 2007 was hampered by a neck injury. His Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics was his last wrestling competition and the final of his nine total World or Olympic level championships.