Sivkova discovered fencing at the age of 10 on the advice of a family friend, who knew a fencing coach. She took up the sport at SDUShOR (
sports school) No.7 near the Borisov Ponds in Moscow, where she first practiced
foil under the coaching of Lyudmila Vyazovaya. After a year Vyazovaya switched to
épée; Sivkova followed the move. She was the only girl at her club, but she found that winning against boys motivated her. After two years of training she began to resent the hard discipline and left for a while; she came back when she realised she needed fencing to let off steam. At the
London Olympics, Sivkova defeated
Jung Hyo-jung of Korea in the table of 32, but was stopped in the next round by Romania's
Anca Măroiu. In the
team event, Russia prevailed over Ukraine, then met China in the semi-finals. Sivkova entered the piste on the last relay with China on the lead. She levelled the score, but lost by one touch in overtime, and Russia came away with no medal. Deeply upset by these failures, Sivkova took a break and did not go back to training before January 2013. ==References==