Damir Mikec ( sr-Cyrl, Дамир Микец; born 31 March 1984) is a Serbian sport shooter.

Biography

Mikec represented

Serbia at the 2008 Summer Olympics Serbia competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The country returned under the name ''Serbia'' after 96 years, previously competing under the names ''Yugoslavia'' (1920–1988), ''Independent Olympic Participant ...

in Beijing, People's Republic of China. He earned his qualification by finishing 6th at the 2007 World Cup #1 Rifle, Pistol in

Fort Benning Fort Benning is a United States Army post near Columbus, Georgia, adjacent to the Alabama–Georgia border. Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees and civilian employees ...

, United States of America. In Beijing, Mikec reached the final in

50 metre pistol The 50 meter pistol, formerly and unofficially still often called Free Pistol, is one of the ISSF shooting events. It provides the purest precision shooting among the pistol events, and is one of the oldest shooting disciplines, dating back to th ...

and finished 7th. In

10 metre air pistol The 10 meter air pistol is an Olympic shooting event governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF). It is similar to 10 meter air rifle in that it is shot with 4.5 mm (or .177) caliber air guns at a distance of 10 m ...

he missed the final by a one-point margin and finished 13th. Mikec won a silver medal in

at the

2009 ISSF World Cup The 2009 ISSF World Cup is the twenty-fourth annual edition of the ISSF World Cup in the Olympic shooting events, governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. Four qualification competitions are held in each event, spanning from April t ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. At the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, he came as world's number one at the world rank list, again competed in the

and the

, finishing in 17th and 16th positions respectively. At the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, he competed in the

finishing second, granting Serbia its first medal at the Games.

Personal life

Mikec is of paternal Slovene descent. His paternal grandparents hail from

Novo Mesto Novo Mesto (; sl, Novo mesto; also known by other alternative names) is a city on a bend of the Krka River in the City Municipality of Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia, close to the border with Croatia. The town is traditionally considered t ...

, but due to his grandfather's engagement in the

Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska a ...

, his father was born in

Bitola Bitola (; mk, Битола ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki ...

. His father was in the Army as well, and met his mother, a discus thrower, in Senta while located there at the time. Because of his older brothers Igor and Goran's respiratory problems, his family moved to Split–where he was born–due to the benefits of sea air and climate. After the outbreak of the

Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the Government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)—and the Serb-controlled Yugosl ...

, his family moved to Herceg Novi. Finally, in 1997, his family moved to Petlovo Brdo,

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, where he finished the last grade of primary school and started secondary school. After the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, he started training shooting at the urging of his mother and

Srećko Pejović Srećko Pejović (Serbian Cyrillic: Срећко Пејовић; born 5 July 1953), is a Serbian sport shooter who competed for Yugoslavia at the 1976, 1980 and 1988 Olympic Games 1988 Olympics refers to both: *The 1988 Winter Olympics, ...

. He is married to

Salvadoran Salvadorans (Spanish: ''Salvadoreños''), also known as Salvadorians (alternate spelling: Salvadoreans), are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvado ...

sports shooter Melissa Pérez, whom he met in 2005. They married in 2011 in the

Ružica Church Ružica Church ( sr-Cyr, Црква Ружица, Crkva Ružica, 'Little Rose Church') is a Serbian Orthodox church located in the Belgrade Fortress, in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Original church was built in the early 15th century, whil ...

. Despite plans for another wedding in El Salvador, the Catholic Church there would not agree on a compromise due to Mikec's

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

faith, unlike the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

who did agree on a compromise due to Pérez's

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

faith. The couple have two children, a son Milan Ricardo (b. 2015) and Mia Vanessa (b. 2020).

References

External links