His greatest accomplishment is the gold medal from the 2000 Olympics. Since the rules for the event changed on January 1, 2005, Alifirenko has been most successful in his adaptation to them. He won both the European Championships and the World Cup Final in 2005, and has held several world records. After a bronze medal at the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships and a gold medal at the pre-Olympic World Cup competition in Beijing in April 2008, it was a setback for the Russian team when he had to withdraw from the Olympics due to eye illness. In October 2008 Alifirenko was suspended for 2 years after he failed a drug test for dexamethasone doping.