Sports Minister elected President of National Olympic Committee
Ukrainian Sports Minister Vadym Guttsait has been elected as the new President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOCU) to replace Sergey Bubka with overwhelming support, having won a three-horse race for the role.
The 51-year-old Olympic fencing gold medallist delivered a resounding victory in the NOCU Presidential election, defeating Tokyo 2020 Greco-Roman wrestling champion and politician Zhan Beleniuk and Ihor Malinskyi, director of the University of Special Physical and Combat Training and Rehabilitation and head of the Kyiv branch of the NOCU.
Biathlete and Olympic gold medallist Olena Bilosiuk was the only woman on the candidate shortlist, but she withdrew to support Beleniuk’s campaign.
In the end, Guttsait received 123 votes – 83 per cent of the vote – to be named the new NOCU President, taking over from the 1988 Olympic pole vault champion Sergey Bubka, who stood down after 17 years in the role.
Beleniuk got 22 votes for 15 per cent of the vote, and Malinskyi got two votes, worth just over two per cent of the vote.
Aleksey Perevezintsev was elected first vice-fresident of the NOCU, while AC Milan and Chelsea striker Andrey Shevchenko was among those picked as vice-presidents.
Maria Bulatova, director of the Educational and Scientific Olympic Institute in Kyiv, and Alexey Dneprov were also elected vice-presidents.
Earlier Shevchenko had been elected for a four-year term as an NOCU member, along with, 2019 World Championship long jump silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk and professional boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk, an Olympic gold medallist at London 2012.
