Marius Vizer (born 7 November 1958) is a Romanian businessman and former

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

ka. Since 2007, he has been the president of the

International Judo Federation The International Judo Federation (IJF) is the international governing body for judo, founded in July 1951. Today the IJF has 200 National Federations on all continents. There are over 20 million people around the globe who practice judo, accordi ...

. Vizer also holds an Austrian passport. Vizer holds a 8th

dan Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa ** Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivo ...

black belt in judo.

Judo

Between 1995 and 2001, he was President of the Romanian Judo Federation. Between 2000 and 2007, Vizer was President of the

European Judo Union The European Judo Federation consists of 51 national Judo federations/associations, and is itself recognised by the International Judo Federation as one of five continental unions. The organisation of the administration of Judo is based on a pyr ...

. And between 2013 and 2015, he was President of the

SportAccord SportAccord is a global sports event organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, that is governed by stakeholders representing the Olympic and non-Olympic International Federations and has currently taken on some of the activities of the dissolve ...

. Since 2007, he has been the president of the

. Vizer is a long-time friend of Russian President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

. During his tenure at the helm of the IJF, it named

Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

as its honorary president and an IJF Ambassador in 2008. That status was initially suspended and then stripped in February and March 2022 in reaction to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. After the invasion of Ukraine, all 31 of the other international Olympic sports organizations temporarily suspended Russian and Belarusian athletes. Vizer wanted to let Russians and Belarusians continue to compete as neutral athletes despite the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Ukrainian pressure to suspend them entirely. Ultimately, both national federations withdrew on their own accord, until June 2022 when they returned. Ukraine boycotted IJF events beginning in June 2022 because the Russian team was allowed to compete in and entered competitions. Judo is one of the few

Olympic sports Olympic sports are sports that are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games. The 2024 Summer Olympics included 32 sports; the 2022 Winter Olympics included seven sports. Each Olympic sport is represented at the Internation ...

which goes against the recommendation of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

Business

He settled in Austria as a judo coach. In the 1990s, Vizer started importing vegetables and fruits from Romania to Austria, especially apples, while he exported banana and orange wagons to Romania. He then organized Telebingo in Romania, in collaboration with TVR, until the National Lottery closed it. He was the owner of the football clubs FC Bihor, Olimpia Salonta and

FC Sopron FC Sopron is a Hungarian football club from the town of Sopron, near the Austrian border. It was founded in 1921 as ''Soproni Postás''. The club's home stadium is Stadion Városi with a capacity of 5,300. History With the beginning of the sea ...

Personal life

In 2015, Vizer married former Romanian singer Irina Nicolae ( A.S.I.A.) after years of dating. They live in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. On 2 February 2018, his wife gave birth to the couple's child, Scarlett-Maria.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vizer, Marius 1958 births Living people People from Bihor County Romanian male judoka Judoka trainers Romanian sports executives and administrators Romanian expatriates in Hungary Austrian expatriates in Hungary Naturalised citizens of Austria Austrian people of Romanian descent 20th-century Romanian sportsmen