Danilov, Alexander

Sport:
shooting

Country Represented:
Israel

Years Competed:
2000, 2004

Olympic Info:
A member of the Israeli shooting team at the 2000 Sydney Games and 2004 Athens Games, Danilov was one of Israel's medal hopes going into the 2000 Olympics. Unfortunately, he was disqualified in the 10-meter pistol event and finished last in the competition. Danilov's trigger was found to be under the official 500-gram weight; he had finished with a score of 574 points in the 10-meter event which still would not have qualified him for the finals. Nevertheless, the disqualification was a disappointment. Danilov had failed to meet the trigger-weight in the past, but thought he had fixed the problem and said: "It was my problem. I didn't look, so I didn't see. I didn't take time to check my trigger one last time." He also finished 18th in the 50-meter free pistol event with a score of 556, and did not make it to the finals.

Danilov suffered a disappointing performance in the 10m Air Pistol qualification event at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He scored 9.617 in the shoot and finished 20th overall, thus failing to make the final. Alex also competed in the 50m Pistol event, which is his stronger event. He failed to qualify for the final due to his poor performance in the qualification round. Alexander scored 90, 91 and 90 respectively in his first three clusters of shoots and despite an improvement to 95, 92 and 96 in his last three, his 9.233 average was only enough for a fifteenth place finish.

Alexander Danilov has been among the world elite in both the free pistol and air rifle shooting events. Despite his great success and his triumph at the 2002 European Championship, the shooter says he will not be happy until he proves himself in the Olympics as well: "I have had success in the European Championship and the World Cup but I have done nothing in the Olympics and that is a great shame."

Career Highlights:
Danilov finished in second place in the 50-meter free pistol at the 1995 European Championships. In 1997, Danilov (competing for Russia) finished 5th in the men's air rifle event at the Munich World Cup. Danilov then won the gold medal for Israel at the 1999 European Championships in the 10-meter pistol. and captured the bronze medal at the 2001 Atlanta World Cup.

Danilov won the air rifle event at the European Championship in Munich in 2000 thus creating high hopes before his disappointing performance in the Sydney Games. Alex underwent something of a crisis for a year after the Olympics but began an impressive comeback in 2001 when he captured the bronze medal at the 2001 Atlanta World Cup. He finished fourth in the World Cup circuit 2002 tournament free pistol event in Finland and second in the air rifle overall in the World Cup competition. In 2003 Danilov ranked 10th overall in the European Championship held in Sweden. 2004 saw Alex prepare well for the Olympics as he came in third in the Bangkok World cup circuit event. On August 5, 2004, he won the Czech Grand-Prix meet with 668.7 points, a new Israeli record.

Birth and Death Dates:
b. Nov. 10, 1969

Origin:
Soviet Union

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