Sergei Charikov

Sergei Charikov was born on, June 18, 1974, in Moscow, Russia.

One of the best sabre fencers in the world, Charikov placed third in the individual sabre event at the 1998 World Championships, third in the team sabre event at the World Championships in 1999, and third in the individual sabre at the World Championships in 2000.

Sergei was both a coach and participant for the Russian team at the 2001 Maccabiah Games. He won the gold medal in the individual sabre over fellow Olympian, Vadim Gutzeit of Ukraine.

He competed in three Olympiads for Russia, winning four medals. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, he competed in both the indvidual and team events. In the team sabre competition, Charikov and the Russians defeated Spain in the quarterfinals (45-34), Italy in the semifinals (45-28), and Hungary in the final (45-25) to win the gold medal. In the individual competition, Charikov easily advanced to the final before losing; he was awarded the silver medal.

Charikov returned to the Olympics at the 2000 Sydney Games and helped lead the Russian team to its second consecutive gold medal in the team sabre event; they easily defeated France in the final, 45-32. In the individual sabre, Sergei entered the Olympics as the No. 3 seed (he was also ranked No. 3 in the world), but was eliminated in the third round of the competition by Wiradech Kothny of Germany, 15-14.

Sergei was seeded 4th in the individuals sabre event in the 2004 Athens Games. In the first round he met 29th seed, Candido Alberto Maya Camejo of Spain, and defeated him 15-9. In the round of 16, Charikov beat Julien Pillet (seeded 13) 15-11. The Russian lost a close match to the 6th seed, Italian Aldo Montano who went on to win gold, 13-15 in the quarterfinal. In the team event, Russia was heavily favored to beat Greece in the quarterfinals and did so 45-22. Charikov lost his individual mini-match to Constantine Manetas 4-5, breezed past Jason Dourakos 5-0 and beat Marios Basmatzian 5-3. The Russians lost their semifinal encounter with Italy 42-45. Sergei won his individual match-up against Luigi Tarantino 5-4, lost to Gianpiero Pastore 4-5, and tied Aldo Montano 5-5. Charikov lost his individual mini-match to Keeth Smart 3-5 and with Ivan Lee 2-5 and to Jason Rogers 4-10, but Russia won the bronze medal match.

Charikov, a member of Maccabi Moscow, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Sources: Jews In Sports