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.

Guttsait fenced in three Olympic Games and was a member of the Unified Team that were crowned team champions in the sabre at Barcelona 1992. 

He competed alongside Stanislav Pozdnyakov, now the President of the Russian Olympic Committee and a public supporter of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

As well as his Olympic gold medal, Guttsait won a silver and bronze medal in the individual and team event at the 1991 World Fencing Championships in Budapest.

He also the gold medal in the individual sabre at consecutive Summer Universiade Games at Sicily 1997 and Palma de Malorca in 1999.

Guttsait served as a major in the Armed Forces of Ukraine between 1993 and 2002.

He was head of Kyiv's City Council Department of Youth and Sports between 2018 and 2020, before being appointed Ukraine's Youth and Sport Minister

It means Ukraine is one of few countries to have a National Olympic Committee President who is also a Government figure.

Most notably of these is Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who is also the head of the National Olympic Committee of the Azerbaijani Republic; as well as Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud, who holds positions as Saudi Arabian Sports Minister and President of the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee.

Sardar Berdimuhamedow, Turkmenistan's President following on from his father, is also the National Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan President.

Belarus' Viktor Lukashenko, son of the country's dictator and President Alexander Lukashenko, is the President of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus, however the International Olympic Committee does not recognise his leadership.

Guttsait's election was not received well by Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskeyvch, who used face-palm emojis in response to the results.

At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Heraskeyvch pulled out a sign saying "No War in Ukraine" just two weeks before the invasion started on February 24.

The current Sports Minister now leads the NOCU towards Paris 2024 in the midst of the ongoing war with Russia.

Insidethegames has contacted the International Olympic Committee for comment.