Michael Constantine Diamond, OAM (born 20 May 1972) is a professional target shooter from Australia.

Career

Diamond was introduced to sport shooting at the age of eight by his father, Con, who was a sporting shooter and managed a gun club. Mastering the shotgun, Diamond succeeded in winning the Olympic gold medal for

trap A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research. Trap or TRAP may also refer to: Art and entertainment Films and television * ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...

consecutively in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

in 1996 and Sydney in 2000, becoming the second men's trap shooter to have done so. He held the world record in

double trap Double trap is a shotgun shooting sport, one of the ISSF shooting events. Participants use a shotgun to attempt to break a clay disk flung away from the shooter at high speed. The layout of double trap shooting is similar to that of trap shoot ...

, and held the final world record in trap between 2007 and 2008. Diamond is of Greek heritage. In 1997, he changed his surname from Diamantopoulos to Diamond. Diamond won the trap event at the 2007 World Shotgun Championships. He was selected to compete in his sixth Olympic Games in London. At the end of the qualification period, he was leading with an Olympic record of 125/125, but ended up finishing fourth overall, losing to Fehaid Aldeehani of Kuwait in a bronze Medal shoot-out. Diamond was ruled ineligible for nomination for the 2016 Rio Olympic games by the Australian Olympic Committee as his firearms licence had been suspended on grounds that were later rejected in court.

Olympic results

Personal life

Diamond was born in

Goulburn, New South Wales Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent ...

. He is of Greek heritage. He married Cathy and together they had three daughters. In 2016, Diamond was charged with firearms offences and drink driving following an alleged domestic dispute involving his brother. The charges resulted in the automatic suspension of his firearms licence under Australian law. Without a firearms licence, Diamond was ruled ineligible for nomination for the 2016 Rio Olympic games by the Australian Olympic Committee. A court later quashed these convictions on appeal, questioning the legality of the police search and rejected claims by the prosecution that the firearms were not kept safe.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond, Michael 1972 births Living people Australian male sport shooters Trap and double trap shooters World record holders in shooting Olympic shooters of Australia Olympic medalists in shooting Olympic gold medalists for Australia Shooters at the 1992 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2000 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games medallists in shooting Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Shooters at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Shooters at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Shooters at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Shooters at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Sydney People from Goulburn Australian people of Greek descent Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal