Sergei Gennadievich Alifirenko (russian: Серге́й Геннадиевич Алифиренко, born 21 January 1959) is a Russian pistol shooter, originally from

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

, specializing in the

25 m Rapid Fire Pistol 25 meter rapid fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events and is shot with .22 LR pistols. The event has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after whic ...

event. He was born in

Kirovakan Vanadzor ( hy, Վանաձոր) is an urban municipal community and the third-largest city in Armenia, serving as the capital of Lori Province in the northern part of the country. It is located about north of the capital Yerevan. As of the 2011 cen ...

Career

His greatest accomplishment is the gold medal from the

2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

. Since the rules for the event changed on 1 January 2005, Alifirenko has been most successful in his adaptation to them. He won both the European Championships and the World Cup Final in 2005, and has held several world records. After a bronze medal at the

2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships The 49th ISSF World Shooting Championships were held in Zagreb, Croatia from July 22, 2006, to August 5, 2006. __NOTOC__ Medal count World records A total of 15 world records were bettered or equalled during the championships. Rifle eve ...

and a gold medal at the pre-Olympic

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

competition in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

in April 2008, it was a setback for the Russian team when he had to withdraw from the Olympics due to eye illness.

Doping scandal

In October 2008 Alifirenko was suspended for 2 years after he failed a

drug test A drug test is a technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, or oral fluid/saliva—to determine the presence or absence of specified parent drugs or their metabolites. Major applications of dr ...

for

dexamethasone Dexamethasone is a glucocorticoid medication used to treat rheumatic problems, a number of skin diseases, severe allergies, asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease, croup, brain swelling, eye pain following eye surgery, superior vena ...

doping.

References

External links

Alifirenko's profile at ISSF NEWS
1959 births Living people Russian male sport shooters ISSF pistol shooters Olympic shooters of Russia Shooters at the 2000 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Russia Olympic bronze medalists for Russia People from Vanadzor Olympic medalists in shooting Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Doping cases in shooting Russian sportspeople in doping cases Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics {{Russia-sportshooting-bio-stub