Sergei Tchepikov

Sergei Tchepikov died on 17 September 2026 in Moscow at the age of 59. His death was first confirmed publicly by Sergei Averyanov, a representative of the Russian Biathlon Union, in a statement reported by TASS.

His widow, Yelena, told the Russian outlet Baza that the cause was an oncological illness. Fellow two time Olympic champion Alexander Vasilyev told reporters that Tchepikov had fought cancer for a long time, and four time world champion Nikolai Kruglov said Tchepikov had been seriously ill in his final period. Reports indicated that despite undergoing treatment, he had continued to attend to his duties on the State Duma committee for state building and legislation in the months before his death.

News of his death drew tributes from across Russian sport and politics. State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin expressed condolences to Tchepikov's family, friends and colleagues. Dmitry Svishchev, deputy head of the Duma's sport committee, called his death a tragedy for Russian sport and praised his contribution to the country's athletic achievements. Colleagues from his time as a regional lawmaker also spoke of his warmth and openness as a person, separate from his sporting legacy.

As of the day his death was reported, no date or location for a funeral or memorial service had been announced.

Born in the settlement of Khor in Khabarovsk Krai on 30 January 1967, Tchepikov took up biathlon as a teenager and entered the Soviet system that fed Dynamo clubs. By 1987 he was absolute junior world champion in Lahti and already on the senior World Cup circuit.

At his first Olympics he finished fourth in the 20 km, then took bronze in the 10 km sprint and gold in the Soviet 4x7.5 km relay. The Games announced a career that would still be medalling nearly two decades later.

He won the overall Biathlon World Cup in 1989-90 and 1990-91, becoming the first Soviet or Russian man to claim the crystal globe. Across his World Cup seasons he amassed multiple individual victories and more than twenty podium finishes.

For the Unified Team in 1992 he added Olympic relay silver. At Lillehammer 1994, carrying the Russian flag at the opening ceremony, he won the 10 km sprint and another relay silver, cementing his status among the sport's elite.

From the mid-1990s he switched to cross-country skiing, racing World Championships and the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Results were more modest than in biathlon, and by the early 2000s he returned to the rifle-and-skis discipline.

Back in biathlon he collected further World Championship medals, including pursuit and relay silvers in 2005, then Olympic relay silver at Turin 2006 and mixed-relay world gold in Pokljuka the same year. He retired in March 2007.

After competition he worked with internal-troops sport teams, advised the Russian national setup around 2010-2013, and briefly served as a Russian Biathlon Union vice-president in 2018.

Elected to the Sverdlovsk Oblast legislature and then, from 2016, to the State Duma for the Beryozovsky constituency, he sat as a United Russia deputy on sport and youth-related committee work through the VII and VIII convocations.

He married biathlete Yelena Melnikova, an Olympic relay bronze medallist from 1992. Public profiles listed education at Ural State Technical University and long ties to the Urals sporting community.

On 17 September 2026 the Russian Biathlon Union announced his death at 59. Executive director Alexander Pak said he had been ill for a long time; Olympians including Dmitry Vasilyev said the illness was cancer. Sverdlovsk sport minister Leonid Rapoport spoke of a lengthy serious disease and pending funeral details.

Tchepikov remains one of the few athletes with Olympic medals from the late Soviet era through Turin 2006, and the trailblazer for Russian men in the overall World Cup. Memorial coverage paired sporting longevity with his later public roles.