Soviet rower Aleksandr Klepikov took up the sport with the Spartak club. Klepikov won bronze in the eight at the 1973 national championships before winning gold in the same event in 1976 and 1977. During the 1970s he was part of the national team and was awarded with the title of Honoured Master of Sports in 1976.
In 1975 Klepikov, Vladimir Yeshinov, Nikolay Ivanov, Aleksandr Sema, and cox Aleksandr Lukyanov won gold in the coxed four at the World Championships in Nottingham, England. The following year the same crew, with the addition of Mikhail Kuznetsov, won gold at the 1976 Montréal Olympics. After retiring as a rower Klepikov worked as a coach at the Spartak sports school from 1980 to 1986 before becoming the director of the youth sports school in Trud from 1989 to 1993.