Sergey Fokichev

The most successful season of Sergey Fokichev’s career was his first international season, 1984. At first in Davos, Fokichev became the first athlete to skate 500 m in under 36 seconds outside of the lightning fast Medeo rink. Then at the Olympics, which was his first major international tournament, Fokichev won the 500 m, achieving his only international tournament medal. After the Olympics, Fokichev won both the 500 m races at the World Sprint Championships, but a poor performance in the 1,000 dropped him to fifth. As a true sprinter, Fokichev never competed at the World or European All-around Championships, but he competed in several World Sprint Championships where he won the 500 m distance several times, although because of poor 1,000 metres he never bettered his fifth place of 1984. Fokichev also competed at the 1988 Olympics, where he was fourth in the 500 m, losing the bronze medal by only 5/100ths of a second to Akira Kuroiwa of Japan. Fokichev also won the 500 m distance titles at the Soviet Championships in 1985 and 1987 and bronzes at the Soviet Championships in the 500 m in 1984 and in sprint all-around in 1989.

Personal Bests: 500 – 36.4 (1986); 1000 – 1:14.45 (1987); 1500 – 1:57.93 (1984).