Zhan Beleniuk

Beleniuk was born in 1991 in Kyiv to a father from Rwanda and a mother from Ukraine. His father, a Rwandan Hutu, was a pilot who studied in Kyiv at the National Aviation University and died during the Rwandan Civil War when Beleniuk was 3 years old.^[5]

Beleniuk began wrestling in 2000 when he was nine years old.^[6]

In 2010, Beleniuk won the silver medal at the Junior World Championships. In 2011, he became the Junior European Champion amongst, and won bronze at the World Championship. In 2012, he won the bronze medal at the European Championships. In 2013, he won bronze again at the Summer Universiade.

In 2014, he won a gold medal at the 2014 European Wrestling Championships,^[7] and bronze at the World Championships.

In 2015, he won the silver medal at the first European Games in Azerbaijan. On 10 September 2015, after winning against the then-reigning World Champion and then-Champion of Asia, Uzbek Rustam Assakalov scoring 6:0, Beleniuk won gold at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships in the under-85 kg weight category.

In 2016, he won gold at the 2016 European Wrestling Championships, followed by the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.^[8]

In 2021, he won the gold medal in the men's Greco-Roman 87 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.^[9]

Beleniuk was briefly a member of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. He left the National Olympic Committee in January 2023 due to disagreement with its new president Vadym Gutzeit.^[10] In 2024, Beleniuk won a bronze medal in the men's Greco-Roman 87 kg at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and subsequently retired from competing.^[11][12]

• List of members of the parliament of Ukraine, 2019–24