Stanislav Pozdnyakov

Stanislav Alekseyevich Pozdnyakov (; born 27 September 1973) is a Russian former fencer, five-time Olympian (1992–2008), and five-time Olympic medalist in individual and team sabre competitions who previously served as president of the Russian Olympic Committee from 2018 to 2024. He is also a ten-time individual and team world champion, in 1994–2007. In 2022, he was removed from his position as European Fencing Confederation (EFC) president at an Extraordinary Congress following a unanimous vote of no confidence in Pozdnyakov, due to his conduct in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Personal His daughter Sofia Pozdniakova is also a fencer. She won the gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Women's Individual Sabre event. Her clubs are the Russian Central Sports Army Club and the Novosibirsk Regional Fencing Sports School of Olympic Reserve.

Pozdnyakov's former son-in-law Konstantin Lokhanov won two world junior championships in sabre, and fenced in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. His son-in-law emigrated to the United States in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, as he was against the war, and at the end of the day the couple divorced. Describing her decision to not accept her husband's request that she join him in the United States, Sofia later said: "As for feelings, love, there was a moment when we did not understand where to go. I got up in the morning and thought: 'That’s it, I’m going to the States.' I was figuring out how I would communicate with my parents, how to explain all this to my dad... He would simply erase me from his life. Then the next day such thoughts: 'So, I’m staying here, my parents, my family – this is important to me.'" When asked about the remark, Lokhanov said he found it funny and unsurprising, even though he was not quite sure why it had been made, and then added with a smile: "I never had a scooter. I'm a big coffee lover, but not frappé."

In September 2022, Pozdnyakov urged Russian athletes to fight for Russia in Russia's war against Ukraine, saying the athletes should feel honored to do so. He said: "From the point of view of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), we, being citizens of the country, consider service to the motherland is an honourable duty and an honourable duty of every citizen, including members of national teams."

Fencing career Pozdnyakov was one of the most successful Olympic fencers of his time. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, as a member of the Unified Team he received a team gold, though he lost the only bout he fenced, to Canadian Jean-Paul Banos.

2015–19 In June 2016 he was elected President of the European Fencing Confederation (EFC). He was questioned by the press as to how it could be that he was managing the team, given that the Russian Olympic Committee had been suspended from the Winter Games, and he was the ROC's vice president. Pozdnyakov responded: "The IOC decision says that the Russian Olympic Committee is suspended. The president and the general secretary for the Russian Olympic Committee are not able to participate in these games. But (there's) nothing about the vice president or other staff members of the Russian Olympic Committee."

In December 2019, after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from all major sporting events for four years for tampering with laboratory data on doping, Pozdnyakov opined that the sanctions were inappropriate and excessive. WADA imposed the sanctions after its executive committee concluded that Russia had planted fake evidence, and deleted files linked to positive doping tests in laboratory data that could have helped identify drug cheats. Gutzeit blames Pozdnyakov for vocally supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In July 2023, a Russian effort to have Ukrainian three-time world sabre champion Olha Kharlan black-carded at the 2023 World Fencing Championships backfired dramatically. Kharlan had offered her defeated Russian opponent a tapping of blades at the end of their bout, a pandemic substitute for handshakes, rather than a handshake.

In December 2023, Pozdnyakov directly threatened any Russian athlete who may choose to participate as a "neutral" at the 2024 Olympics, saying: "As the head of the ROC, I voice a clear position: ... We live in a free state... But... we strongly recommend that you thoroughly understand ... the extent and consequences of the personal responsibility assumed." In June 2024, top Russian Olympic official and Vladimir Putin's lieutenant Dmitry Chernyshenko stated that Russian athletes would not violate Russian law by competing in Paris as neutrals and encouraged them to participate.

Pozdnyakov resigned as head of the ROC on 15 October 2024, citing "timely" reasons such as "geopolitical changes".