Margarita Mkrtchyan (russian: Маргарита Гегамовна Мкртчян; 6 April 1981 – 11 July 2013) was a Russian

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

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 and also finished seventh in the 57-kg division at the 2004 Summer Olympics, representing her nation

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. Mkrtchyan also trained as a full-fledged member of the taekwondo team for

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet era, it was a central piece of the big So ...

under her personal coach and master Boris Zenkin. Mkrtchyan qualified for the Russian squad in the women's featherweight class (57 kg) at the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, by placing second behind Spain's Sonia Reyes and granting a berth from the European Olympic Qualifying Tournament in

Baku, Azerbaijan Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...

. 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 Abdalla ...

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, 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