Vitali Klitschko

Date of Birth: 19.07.1971

Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko - Mayor of Kyiv since June 5, 2014. Head of the Kyiv City Administration since June 25, 2014. Multiple world heavyweight boxing champion. UNESCO Sportsman of the Year (12.04.2006). Doctor of Sports Science (2000). Hero of Ukraine (2004). Honorary Citizen of Kyiv.

Place of Birth. Education. Born in the village of Belowodskoye in the Moscow district of the Kyrgyz SSR. Together with his parents (father - pilot, mother - office worker) and younger brother Volodymyr (also a world-famous boxer), he lived in various parts of the Soviet Union. In 1984, the family moved to Ukraine.

In 1995, Klitschko graduated from the Pedagogical Institute of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky in the name of Dragomanov (specialization in physical education teacher). Doctor of Sports Sciences (defended his dissertation on the topic 'Methods for Determining the Abilities of Boxers within a Multi-Stage Sports Selection System').

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In 2011, he graduated from the National Academy of Public Administration of the President of Ukraine with a master's degree in the field of 'Management of Societal Development'.

Sport Achievements. He started boxing at 14. He was also active in kickboxing (and was quite successful). During his 30-year sports career, he reached international elite level (since 1996 in professional boxing).

Klitschko is a six-time world champion in kickboxing, three-time Ukrainian boxing champion, silver medalist at the Amateur World Championship, multiple European champion in professional boxing, Intercontinental Champion by WBO and WBA versions, heavyweight world champion by WBO and WBC versions.

Statistically, he fought 210 fights in the amateur ring (185 won, including 80 by knockout). In the professional ring, he had 37 fights (35 won early, 2 losses). In 1999, he was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the first heavyweight champion to win 26 fights by knockout in the shortest number of rounds. He was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of Ukraine.

In 2007, he announced that he wanted to return to professional sports. He then won a fight against Samuel Peter, who had previously lost the championship to Russian Oleg Maskaev, defended the title of WBC champion in a fight against mandatory challenger Cuban Juan Carlos Gomez, and won the fight against Chris Arreola. In the fight against American Kevin Johnson in December 2009, he set a new record for jabs thrown in a heavyweight fight - 749. In May 2010, Klitschko defended his title in a fight against European champion Albert 'Drakon' Sosnowski from Poland and in October of the same year against American Shannon Briggs.

The World Boxing Council named WBC champion Vitali Klitschko the best puncher in heavyweight history.

He fought a total of 43 fights in the professional ring: 41 wins (38 by KO), 2 losses.

Political Career. In 2005, Klitschko was appointed advisor to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. In October 2006, he took the position of permanent advisor to the Head of State. Earlier, during the presidential campaign in 2004, the Klitschko brothers publicly supported the opposition candidate during the Orange Revolution.

In the 2006 elections, Klitschko ran simultaneously for the Ukrainian parliament (in 1st place on the PRP-PORA block list), for the Kyiv city council, and for the position of Mayor of Kyiv. Ultimately, he only received a mandate as a deputy in the legislative body of the capital. He led a group in his own name. In the mayoral elections, he took second place, losing to Leonid Chernovetsky but overtaking the former mayor of Kyiv, Alexander Omelchenko.

Immediately after the announcement of an extraordinary election of capital authorities in early 2008, Klitschko declared his intention to apply for the position of mayor. The attempt was unsuccessful. In the extraordinary elections of the capital authorities in May 2008, Klitschko took third place, losing to Chernovetsky and Alexander Turchinov. At the same time, Klitschko managed to bring his block back into the Kyiv city council.

On April 24, 2010, the political party New Land was renamed the party BLAST (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms), which was led by Vitali Klitschko.

In 2012, he led his party BLAST in the parliamentary elections, where they took third place behind the Party of Regions and Homeland, receiving 13.96% of the votes. In total, BLAST received 42 mandates in the VII convocation of the Verkhovna Rada. Klitschko himself was included in the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada for State Building and Local Self-Government.

At the end of November 2013, he joined the mass protests in the country that culminated in the Dignity Revolution.

In the early presidential elections on May 25, 2014, Klitschko did not run but supported the candidacy of Petro Poroshenko. On the same day, extraordinary elections of the Kyiv city chairman and deputies of the Kyiv city council were scheduled, in which Klitschko became mayor of the capital (56.7% of Kyiv residents voted for him) and his party BLAST received a majority in the Kyiv city council.

On June 5, 2014, Vitali Klitschko took the oath of office as Mayor of Kyiv.

On June 25, 2014, President Petro Poroshenko appointed Vitali Klitschko as Head of the Kyiv City State Administration by decree, thus removing Vladimir Bondarenko from this position.

He ran again for mayor of Kyiv in the local elections in the fall of 2015. Following the results of the first round on October 25, he received 40.57% of the vote and advanced to the runoff along with Borislav Beresov, who had 8.87% of Kyiv votes. In the second round on November 15, Klitschko won - 66.5% of voters voted for him, 33.5% for Beresov.

On January 23, 2015, Vitali Klitschko was elected President of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, previously held by Yuriy Vilkul.

After the merger of the parties BLAST and BPP, Vitali Klitschko was elected head of the BPP Solidarity party at the extraordinary congress on August 28, 2015. In November 2015, after Vitali Klitschko became the Mayor of Kyiv, he resigned from the position of party chairman according to the party statute.

On May 30, 2020, Vitali Klitschko announced that he would run for the mayoral elections in Kyiv on October 25, 2020. In the first round Vitali Klitschko won with a result of 50.52% of the votes.

Social Activities. From 1998 to 2003, Klitschko was the chairman of the board of the International Sports Development Foundation 'Sport - XXI Century'. Since 2002, he has been a special ambassador of UNESCO under the 'Education for Children from Poverty' program. Since 2003, he has been the chairman of the Board of the Klitschko Brothers Foundation charity.

Books. In 2003, the Klitschko brothers presented their book 'Our Fitness. Simple Secrets of Champions' (published in several languages).

State Awards. Order 'For Merit' III degree, Order 'For Courage' I degree. In December 2004, he was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.

Family. Since 1997, he was married to Natalya Yegorova - a former athlete and model. Children - sons Yegor (born 2000) and Maxim (born 2005) and daughter Yelisaveta-Viktoriya (born 2002).

In August 2022, Vitali Klitschko announced his divorce from his wife.

Hobbies. Diving, music, chess.

14.09.2023