Tsikhan was born in the village of Hloŭsievičy, Slonim district, Grodno Region, Belarusian SSR.

In 2004, At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens Tsikhan won the silver medal with a throw of 79.81 metres, however, after retesting his doping sample in 2012 IOC disqualified him.

In the Belarusian national championship in Brest in July, he came within one centimeter of the world record of 86.74 held by Youri Sedykh since 1986.

[10] Both Tsikhan and silver medalist and fellow Belarusian Vadim Devyatovskiy tested positive for abnormal levels of testosterone after the hammer throw finals on 12 August 2008 at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Both men were stripped of their medals by the International Olympic Committee and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

If the Court had rejected their appeal, Tsikhan would have served a two-year suspension and been banned from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

[11] However, In June 2010 the CAS ruled in his favor and due to discrepancies in drug testing he was reawarded his bronze medal.