Sport Fencing Name Viktor Sidyak | Height 1.76 m Weight 76 kg | |
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Born 24 November 1943 (age 80) ( 1943-11-24 ) Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Russia Club Army Club Lviv,
Army Club Minsk Olympic medals Fencing at the 1976 Summer Olympics - Men's Sabre, Individual Similar People Viktor Krovopuskov, Vladimir Nazlymov, Mark Rakita, Michele Maffei, Tibor Pezsa | ||
Viktor Alexandrovich Sidyak (Russian: Ви́ктор Алекса́ндрович Сидя́к; born 24 November 1943) is a retired left-handed sabre fencer from Russia, a pupil of Mark Rakita and David Tyshler. He was known for his aggressive style and the "one-and-a-half tempo attack".
Biography
Sidyak was born in Anzhero-Sudzhensk in Kemerovo Oblast, but spent most of his childhood in Donetsk. He started fencing at age fifteen. In the 1960s, while training in Lvov, he represented Ukraine on the internal Soviet circuit. In 1970, he moved to Minsk and joined the then mighty Belarusian fencing lobby (whose other luminaries include Elena Belova, Alexandr Romankov, and Nikolai Alyokhin).
At the 1972 Summer Olympics, Sidyak became the first Soviet sabreur to win individual gold. At the same Olympics, he fenced in the team final with his right eye bandaged over after having a fragment of the Italian Michele Maffei's blade removed from his eye the previous day. Besides Sidyak, the team consisted of Vladimir Nazlymov, Eduard Vinokurov, and Viktor Bazhenov. The Soviet and Italian teams met again in the finals, Italy taking gold, and USSR silver. In 1994, Maffei's 1972 teammate Mario Aldo Montano invited Sidyak to coach the young fencers, including his own son, at his club in Livorno.
At the world championships Sidyak's won an individual title in 1969 and team titles in 1969–1971, 1974, 1975 and 1979.
At present, Sidyak is the chairman of the professional boxing association of Belarus.