Anna Vitalyevna Sivkova (russian: Анна Витальевна Сивкова; born 12 April 1982) is a Russian
épée
The ( or , ), sometimes spelled epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contain ...
fencer,
2004 Olympic team champion.,
three-time World team champion (2001, 2003, and 2013) and European team champion in 2012.
Career
Sivkova discovered fencing at the age of 10 on the advice of a family friend, who knew a fencing coach.
She took up the sport at SDUShOR (
sports school
A sports school (russian: Детско-Юношеская Спортивная Школа, ДЮСШ) is a type of educational institution for children that originated in the Soviet Union. Sports schools were the basis of the powerful system of ph ...
) No.7 near the Borisov Ponds in Moscow, where she first practiced
foil
Foil may refer to:
Materials
* Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine
* Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal
* Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food
* Tin foil, metal foil ...
under the coaching of Lyudmila Vyazovaya. After a year Vyazovaya switched to
épée
The ( or , ), sometimes spelled epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contain ...
; Sivkova followed the move. She was the only girl at her club, but she found that winning against boys motivated her. After two years of training she began to resent the hard discipline and left for a while; she came back when she realised she needed fencing to let off steam.
Sivkova won the 1997 Cadet World Championships at Tenerife. Her silver medal in the
1998 World Youth Games
The 1998 World Youth Games was the first international multi-sport event of its kind. More than 7,500 young athletes representing 140 countries of the world participated in this event. The Games took place in Moscow, Russia from July 11 to 19, 199 ...
made her realise she could become a champion.
She then took a silver medal at the 1999 Junior World Championships at Keszthely and the gold at the 2000 Junior European Championships in Antalya. She joined the senior national team in 2001. Her first competition with Russia was the
European Championships in Coblenz, where they took the silver medal. They went on to win the gold medal in the
World Championships
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
in Nîmes. She climbed in 2003 her first podium in the
Fencing World Cup
The FIE Fencing World Cup is an international fencing competition held by the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime. In each weapon (Men's and Women's Épée, Sabre and Foil), three Grand Prix, five World Cup events and several satellite events ...
with a gold medal in Prague and two bronzes in Tauberbischofsheim and Havana. She also reached the quarter-finals in the
World Championships
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
in Havana. These results pushed her to 6th place in world rankings.
The
2004 Summer Olympics in Athens were her first Olympic experience. In the
individual event she was defeated in the first round by reigning Olympic Champion
Tímea Nagy
Tímea Nagy (born 22 August 1970) is a Hungarian right-handed épée fencer, three-time Olympian, 2006 individual world champion, and two-time Olympic champion.
Awards
* Hungarian Fencer of the Year (3): 2000, 2004, 2006
* National Defenc ...
. In the
team event, Russia overcame South Korea in the quarter-finals, then Canada. Sivkova's poor performance in her semi-final bouts prompted head coach Aleksandr Kislyunin to keep her as reserve in the final against Germany, which she took as a personal blow at the time.
Russia eventually defeated Germany 34–28, allowing Sivkova to become Olympic team champion.
The two following years were more difficult for Sivkova. As team épée was not included in the programme of the
2008 Summer Olympics, she had to enter the Top 8 to gain qualification, but her World Cup results were not good enough. After teammate
Tatiana Logunova obtained her qualification, Sivkova had to get into the European Top 3 to go to Beijing. In the St Petersburg World Cup, the penultimate qualifying tournament, Sivkova was defeated by Romania's
Ana Maria Brânză, who won the gold medal and one of the three European Olympic tickets. Coach Aleksandr Kislyunin decided
Lyubov Shutova had better chances of getting qualified and chose not to send Sivkova to the last qualifying tournament in Florina.
At the
London Olympics, Sivkova defeated
Jung Hyo-jung of Korea in the table of 32, but was stopped in the next round by Romania's
Anca Măroiu. In the
team event, Russia prevailed over Ukraine, then met China in the semi-finals. Sivkova entered the piste on the last relay with China on the lead. She levelled the score, but lost by one touch in overtime, and Russia came away with no medal. Deeply upset by these failures, Sivkova took a break and did not go back to training before January 2013.
References
External links
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archive
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sivkova, Anna
1982 births
Living people
Martial artists from Moscow
Russian female épée fencers
Fencers at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Fencers at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Olympic fencers for Russia
Olympic gold medalists for Russia
Olympic medalists in fencing
Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
European Games competitors for Russia
Fencers at the 2015 European Games
21st-century Russian women