Miroslav Januš (born 9 August 1972 in Postupice,

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

) is a Czech sport shooter. A four-time Olympian (1992 to 2004), Janus is one of Czech Republic's most successful individual shooters in Olympic history, having won a bronze medal in the

10 m running target 10 meter running target is one of the ISSF shooting events, shot with an airgun at a target that moves sideways. The target is pulled across a two meter wide aisle at the range of 10 meters from the firing point. The target is pulled at either of ...

Atlanta 1996 The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. Outside his Olympic career, Janus has produced a career record of 120 medals in a major international competition, including fourteen golds at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

, and a total of ten in different color at the Worlds since his debut came as a junior in 1989.

Career

Started shooting at the age of fourteen, Janus ascended to prominence in the international scene as part of the former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

team in 1989. By that time, he set a junior world record of 566 in the running target to successfully claim his first ever gold medal at the World Championships in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. Janus' early rise continued as he improved his personal best by six points for another Worlds title two years later in

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. He made his first Czech team at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, but failed to reach the final in the inaugural

, finishing ninth with a score of 572. In 1995, Janus reached the peak of his shooting career by breaking a new world record of 685.5 in the running target to earn a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup meet in

Seoul, South Korea Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

. Janus' exceptional dominance clearly made him one of the top favorites vying for an Olympic medal at his succeeding Games in

. Indeed, he progressed to the

final with a third seed at 580, and then shot brilliantly a 98.4 in the 10-shot round to give the Czechs an Olympic bronze for a total score of 678.4, trailing the Chinese duo of Yang Ling and

Xiao Jun Xiao Jun (, 3 July 1907 – 22 June 1988), born Liu Honglin (), was a Chinese author and intellectual from Linghai, Liaoning, China. Of Manchu ethnicity, Xiao's most famous work in China is his 1934 novel ''Village in August'' () which gain ...

by just a few points. The following season, Janus established his new personal best of 685.7 to assert himself with a blazing first-place finish at the 1997 World Cup final in

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in addition to his third straight victory from the European Championships, erasing his own record that he previously set two years earlier in Seoul by just a slim tenth of a point margin (0.1). Heading to his third Olympic Games in

Sydney 2000 The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

with confidence and luck, Janus was expected to be an overwhelming medal favorite for the Czechs, but in the

, he put up a lackluster effort with a modest 91.8 on the 10-shot series, that shut him out of the podium to last in the eight-man final, accumulating a total score of 666.8. Earlier, Janus shot a slow-running 293 and a wretched 282 on the fast run to get a fifth-seeded score of 575 for the final. The post-Sydney Olympics period sought a real test and a mighty redemption on Janus at the same shooting range two years later for the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

series. There, he commanded a robust two-point lead over the Russian tandem of Aleksandr Blinov and World champion Dimitri Lykin to claim the gold with 681.7, and secure an Olympic quota place for the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

towards his fourth straight Games. Before the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Janus held off a formidable challenge from Lykin to collect another gold in an Olympic test event at

Markópoulo Olympic Shooting Centre The Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre was the site of the shooting events at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The venue is located in Markópoulo, on the outskirts of the eastern suburbs of Athens. It has a seating capacity of 4,000, th ...

, as part of the

series, finishing in the lead at 685.5. Upon entering the Games as an Olympic medal favorite, Janus suddenly crashed out of the men's 10 m running target final with a disastrous feat in the qualifying round. He marked a lowly 283 on the slow-target and 281 on the fast run to finish a startling fifteenth out of 19 shooters with a total score of 564, just fourteen points away from the final cutoff.

Olympic results

References

External links

*
Czech Olympic Team Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Janus, Miroslav 1972 births Living people Czech male sport shooters Olympic shooters for Czechoslovakia Olympic shooters for the Czech Republic Shooters at the 1992 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2000 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the Czech Republic Olympic medalists in shooting Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics People from Benešov District Sportspeople from the Central Bohemian Region