Career
He represented his country at the 2008 Summer Olympics. His time of 2:09:07 hours in Dublin that year is the Russian record for the event. In 2008, he came ninth at the London Marathon and placed 21st in the men's Olympic marathon.
His best run of 2009 was a runner-up finish at the Dublin Marathon in a time of 2:10:38 hours. He was not selected to run for Russia at the 2010 European Athletics Championships due to misunderstanding. Sokolov had his second fastest ever run at the Zurich Marathon in 2011, coming in as runner-up in a time of 2:10:23 hours.
Aleksey Sokolov is sometimes confused with Aleksey Sokolov (Jr), another top marathon runner from Saint Petersburg. Aleksey Sokolov is a trainer for Aleksey Sokolov (Jr).