Alexander Tikhonov

Soviet biathlete (born 1947)

Alexander Ivanovich Tikhonov (Александр Иванович Тихонов; born 2 January 1947) is a former Soviet Russian biathlete. On 23 July 2007, he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to three years of imprisonment, but he was amnestied immediately and did not spend any time in prison.

Tikhonov trained at Dynamo in Novosibirsk. He won nine world championship biathlon gold medals and four Olympic gold medals. He lacks an individual Olympic gold medal in his cupboard, but took part in the gold medal relay winning teams in 1968, 1972, 1976, and 1980. W. D. Frank, author of Everyone to Skis! Skiing in Russia and the Rise of Soviet Biathlon, wrote in his book that Tikhonov was a member of the KGB. In 1999 he ran for election to become governor of the Moscow region, but Tikhonov lost in the first round. After Tikhonov was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, he fled and lived in Austria for several years in the early 2000s. During the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, when biathlete Valeria Vasnetsova complained about the quality of food she was receiving at her hotel, Tikhonov said: "I would cut off Vasnetsova's tongue for such complaints. At the 1980 Olympics, we lived in America like in a prison and nobody complained." In September 2023, he publicly supported Russia's attack on Ukraine. Tikhonov volunteered to serve in the "special military operation" in Ukraine in 2023.

Tikhonov led the Russian Biathlon Union from 1995 to 2008, soon after he was convicted of trying to have a politician killed. In May 2002, after Tikhonov fled to Austria to avoid trial for conspiracy to commit murder, he was chosen as vice president of the International Biathlon Union (IBU), the sport's governing body. He held that position until 2010. The doping cases were three erythropoietin (EPO) cases the IBU had brought against three Russian national team biathletes, Ekaterina Iourieva, Albina Akhatova and Dmitry Yaroshenko. In 2010, he was the second in command at the IBU, and vice president of the Russian Biathlon Union. He said he would make a congressional proposal that neither Baiba Broka nor Olle Dahlin deserved to be the IBU President. Alexander Tikhonov, was charged and arrested in August 2020, but was released from custody a month later when he claimed he was unwell with an order to remain in Russia. However, he disobeyed the order and fled the country for Austria and Germany, where he lived for several years. Leonid Tyagachev, president of the Russian Olympic Committee from 2001 to 2010, approved of his amnesty, opining: "The person who has devoted all his life to Russia can't be guilty of anything."

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.