Zuzana Rehák-Štefečeková (born 15 January 1984) is a Slovak

sports shooter Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a par ...

. She won the gold medal in the Women's Trap event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

and the silver medal at the

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and

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

Career

Her first big successes were bronze medals from 2002 World and European Junior Championships. She also placed fourth at the 2001 World Junior Championships and fifth at the 1999 World Junior Championship. As a junior, she also competed 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 shooti ...

, her best results were the 6th place from the 2001 World Junior Championships and 7th place from the 1999 World Junior Championship.

Olympic Games

She entered the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

as a holder of the qualification ''(74 hits)'' and final ''(96)'' world records which she achieved in 2006 at 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 name is ...

event in

Qingyuan Qingyuan, formerly romanized as Tsingyun, is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong province, China, on the banks of the Bei or North River. During the 2020 census, its total population was 3,969,473, out of whom 1,738,424 lived in the ...

. She won the qualification round, but placed second in the final, where she missed two more targets than Satu Mäkelä-Nummela of

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Her world records lasted to the

, where they were overcome by Jessica Rossi of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, who missed only one target in the whole competition. Štefečeková was the most successful in the silver medal shoot-off, beating Delphine Réau of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Alessandra Perilli Alessandra Perilli (born 1 April 1988) is a professional target shooter. Born in Italy, she represents San Marino internationally. She won San Marino's first ever Olympic medal, a bronze, in Women's Trap at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Biography ...

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

. She is the first sports shooter who managed to defend her medal in the women's trap competition at the Olympic Games. Despite qualifying for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, she did not compete due her maternity leave. Rehák-Štefečeková competed in two events at the

, women's trap (individual) and mixed trap team with

Erik Varga Erik Varga (; born 9 June 1976) is a Slovak sport shooter who specializes in the trap. He is a member of the Hungarian community in Slovakia. At the 2008 Olympic Games he finished in joint eighth place in the trap qualification, missing a plac ...

. She won the qualification in the individual trap event, setting the new world and Olympic record by hitting all 125 targets. She won the gold medal in the finals, the first ever gold medal for

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

from shooting events. Rehák-Štefečeková managed to hit 43 of 50 targets, one more than the silver medalist Kayle Browning. She thus became the most successful shooter in Olympic women's trap, with one gold and two silver medals (no other Olympic champion has ever managed to win another medal in this event). In the mixed trap team event she and

placed third in the qualification, missing only one target out of 75, while Varga missed three. They advanced into the bronze medal match, where they managed hit the equal number of targets (42) as

Madelynn Bernau Madelynn Ann Bernau (born June 1, 1998, in Racine, Wisconsin) is an American sport shooter. Bernau and Brian Burrows won the bronze medal in the mixed trap team event at the 2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially brande ...

and Brian Burrows from the

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

, but ultimately lost in the subsequent shoot-off, finishing fourth.

World and European Championships

Competing at the senior level, Štefečeková won her first medal at the 2003 World Championships, where she finished third. After placing 10th in

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, 9th in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and 6th in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, she won the gold medal at the 2010 World Championships, with 72 hits in qualification and 19 in final, beating Liu Yingzi and Jessica Rossi. She added a silver medal in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, where only Liu Yingzi defeated her and a bronze medal in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. Her biggest success came at the 2018 World Championships, where she won the gold medal not only in the individual event, defeating

Wang Xiaojing Wang Xiaojing (born 3 May 1992) is a Chinese Shooting sports, sport shooter. She participated at the 2018 ISSF World Shooting Championships, winning a medal. References External links

* Living people 1992 births Chinese female sport sh ...

in the final shoot-off, but also in the mixed trap with

. Her total score from the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

in the single-target individual trap event is two gold (

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

), three silver (

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

) and three bronze (

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

) medals. She also won the silver medal in the individual double trap event at the

2018 European Championships The 2018 European Championships were the first edition of the European Championships (multi-sport event), European Championships. It was a multi-sport event which took place in Berlin, Germany, and Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (with Edinburg ...

and five medals in team events: gold in 2018 (mixed double trap with Hubert Andrzej Olejnik), silver in 2015 (women's trap team) and 2018 (mixed trap with Erik Varga) and bronze in 2013 and 2017 (women's trap team).

Other competitions

At the first

European Games The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition contested by athletes from countries served by national Olympic committees within the European Olympic Committees (EOC), the regional association for such committ ...

, with

, they won a gold medal in the mixed trap event. She also won seven individual

events, including two World Cup finals.

Personal life

Štefečeková is a committed

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, she studied missionary and charitable work in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

. In 2016, she gave birth to a son, Nathan.

References

External links

* * * *
Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova
at the

Paris 2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stefecekova 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Nitra Shooters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2012 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic shooters for Slovakia Olympic gold medalists for Slovakia Olympic silver medalists for Slovakia Slovak female sport shooters World record holders in shooting Trap and double trap shooters Olympic medalists in shooting Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2015 European Games European Games gold medalists for Slovakia European Games medalists in shooting Summer World University Games medalists in shooting FISU World University Games gold medalists for Slovakia FISU World University Games bronze medalists for Slovakia Shooters at the 2019 European Games 20th-century Slovak women 21st-century Slovak sportswomen Shooters at the 2024 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2007 Summer Universiade