Margarita Mkrtchyan (russian: Маргарита Гегамовна Мкртчян; 6 April 1981 – 11 July 2013) was a Russian taekwondo practitioner, who competed in the women's featherweight category. She claimed three medals (two silvers and one bronze) in the women's 55 and 59-kg classes at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

and also finished seventh in the 57-kg division at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, representing her nation Russia. Mkrtchyan also trained as a full-fledged member of the taekwondo team for CSKA Moscow under her personal coach and master Boris Zenkin. Mkrtchyan qualified for the Russian squad in the women's featherweight class (57 kg) at the

in Athens, by placing second behind Spain's

Sonia Reyes Sonia Reyes Sáez (born 30 October 1977) is a Spanish taekwondo practitioner, who competed in the women's featherweight category. She was born in Guadalajara. Considered one of the world's top favorites in her respective category, Reyes picked u ...

and granting a berth from the European Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan. She crashed out in an opening round defeat to U.S. taekwondo fighter

Nia Abdallah Nia Nicole Abdallah (born January 24, 1984) is the 2004 Olympic silver medalist and the first U.S. woman to officially medal in Taekwondo at the Olympic Games. In 2007, Abdallah was inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame. Early life Abdall ...

with a score of 9–16, but slipped into the repechage bracket for her chance of an Olympic bronze medal, following Abdallah's progress towards the final match. In the repechage, Mkrtchyan subsided her Olympic medal chance by losing the first playoff 2–5 to her Italian opponent and two-time Olympian

Cristiana Corsi Cristiana Corsi (23 April 1976, in Rome – 22 February 2016) was an Italian taekwondo practitioner, who competed in the women's featherweight category. Considered one of Italy's top taekwondo players of her decade, Corsi obtained a total of ni ...

, relegating the Russian to seventh position. Mkrtchyan died in an automobile accident on 11 July 2013.

References

External links

* 1981 births 2013 deaths Russian female taekwondo practitioners Olympic taekwondo practitioners for Russia Taekwondo practitioners at the 2004 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Voronezh European Taekwondo Championships medalists Road incident deaths in Russia 21st-century Russian women {{Russia-taekwondo-bio-stub