Mark Tolstikhin, a former Russian 4x1000m relay champion, has found himself back in the spotlight—but this time, not for breaking records on the track.
Instead, he’s breaking into stores and swiping phones.
The 35-year-old was recently sentenced to three and a half years in prison by the Meshansky District Court in Moscow for a string of robberies and phone thefts. Turns out, all those sprinting drills came in handy—just not in the way his coach intended.
Tolstikhin’s transition from athlete to outlaw wasn’t exactly a smooth one.
He had been a standout on the track, bagging a silver medal at the 2007 European Junior Athletics Championships and a bronze at the European Junior Mountain Running Championships. His running career, once filled with promise, began to unravel as his reported gambling debts piled up.
According to his former coach, Yuri Kukanov, Tolstikhin often borrowed money from friends and teammates, rarely paying them back. When the polite requests for repayment turned into cold shoulders, he decided to use his talents for a different kind of dash.
His criminal escapades were nothing if not efficient.
In one incident, he waltzed into a Moscow electronics store, feigned interest in purchasing an iPhone, and engaged the sales associate in a lengthy discussion. When the time came to pay, he snatched the phone and took off faster than you could say, “Do you want AppleCare with that?” The sales associate, left in a cloud of dust, didn’t stand a chance.
“He came in asking about an iPhone, and we spent a long time discussing it,” a store employee told local media. “Then he suddenly said, ‘I’ll buy it.’ As I was processing the sale, he snatched the phone and ran away.”
Another victim, a nail salon employee, recalled how Tolstikhin booked a fake appointment for his girlfriend. While she turned her back, he grabbed her phone from its charger and sprinted out of the shop. “I couldn’t catch him,” the victim said.
This isn’t Tolstikhin’s first run-in with the law.
His criminal record dates back to 2017, when he was convicted of robbery and assault.
A 2019 phone theft arrest saw him sentenced to community service, but instead of fulfilling his duties, Tolstikhin chose the fugitive life.
As a federal fugitive in Russia, he managed to avoid authorities until a security camera finally caught him in a Moscow metro station on Feb. 4, 2025.
His former coach, who once believed Tolstikhin might represent Russia on the Olympic stage, now says his protégé as an example of wasted potential.
