He is married to Ukrainian journalist, radio and TV presenter, Oksana Gutzeit.[6] They have two children.[6]
Fencing career
Fencer
Gutzeit took up fencing at the age of nine.[7] He won the Ukrainian national sabre championship when he was 15. He fenced for Dynamo (Kiev).[6] In 1988 he became USSR Junior Sabre Champion.[8]
He competed at four Universiade competitions, winning five medals between 1991 and 1999, with gold medals in the individual sabre events in 1997 and 1999.[11][12]
Olympic champion
Gutzeit is an Olympic champion, and has competed in three Olympics. He competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for the Unified Team (the former Soviet Union) at the age of 20, and won a gold medal with the sabre team.[3][13]
Gutzeit became an international referee in 2002 in all weapons for the International Fencing Federation.[17] He has since officiated in a number of major competitions, including the 2000, 2004, 2012, and 2021 Olympics.[11][5]
He was vice president of the Ukrainian Fencing Federation from 2000 to 2016, has been President of the Federation since 2017, and has been a member of the executive committee of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine since 2004.[6] In 2014 Gutzeit said: "I, an Olympic champion, want to appeal to all the people of Ukraine and Russia! ... I won the Olympic Games in 1992 as part of the CIS combined team .... We respected and loved each other! We were like brothers.... I ask all the politicians of the two countries! We must be friends and respect each other .... And each of us deserves to live happily in our own land."[18]
In 2010-2020, Gutzeit was the executive director of the Ukrainian Olympic Training and Sports Center.[4]
Honors
In 1997, Gutzeit was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit III, in 2008 he received the award "For Merit" II, and in 2012 he received the award "For Merit" I.[4][6] In 2004, he received the honorary title of "Honored Worker of Physical Culture and Sports of Ukraine."[4] In 2016, he received the Insignia of the President of Ukraine.[7] Gutzeit is also a Ukrainian Honored Master of Sports (1992) and Honored Coach of Ukraine.[19][6]
On 28 February 2022, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he wrote: "No one has the right to threaten our sovereignty and freedom... Sport carries the idea of peace. But if the enemy is on our land – ... We will surely win!"[25]
Referring to the International Olympic Committee's decision to reinstate Russian athletes as neutrals, Gutzeit pointed out in March 2023 that "neither us nor them" are satisfied with the decision, with the Ukrainians ardently demanding a blanket ban, while the Russians claim the IOC criteria is humiliating, hypocritical, and russophobic.[26]
Also in March 2023, Gutzeit said that Russia's invasion of Ukraine had so far killed 262 Ukrainian athletes, and destroyed 363 sports facilities in Ukraine.[27][28]
In 2023, Gutzeit, who had competed with Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov when they were teammates from Ukraine and Russia on the post-Soviet Unified Team at the 1992 Olympics, said he had only contempt for Pozdnyakov.[29][30] He blames Pozdnyakov for vocally supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[6] Gutzeit said: "I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t want to know him at all. He is my enemy, who supports this war, who considers it an honor for athletes to take part in the war against Ukrainians, to kill Ukrainians. Therefore, for today and forever, this person does not exist for me.”[6]
On 8 November 2023 Gutzeit requested his dismissal as minister, so he could focus more on his work in the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine.[31] The Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) fired Gutzeit as Minister of Youth and Sports the following day.[31] 243 Ukrainian MP's voted for his dismissal.[31]
President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine