Name Daina Gudzineviciute Height 1.78 m Spouse Tadas Griniukas | Role Olympic athlete Weight 80 kg | |
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Born 23 December 1965 (age 58) ( 1965-12-23 ) Vilnius, Lithuania Olympic medals Shooting at the 2000 Summer Olympics - Women\'s Trap | ||
Stories from the field – women in sport: interview with Daina Gudzineviciute
Daina Gudzinevičiūtė (born 23 December 1965 in Vilnius) is an Olympic shooting champion from Lithuania and president of National Olympic Committee.
Trap shooting for women was first introduced in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Gudzinevičiūtė scored 71 hits in the qualifying round and then hit 22 out of 25 targets in the final. This was one more than Delphine Racinet's score. As the event was held in the Olympic Games for the first time, Gudzinevičiūtė also set an Olympic record. It was a very unexpected victory for Lithuania and their first medal at Sydney.
After the Sydney success it was expected that Daina would perform well in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but she scored only 55 hits and landed on the 14th place among 17 contestants. She complained about the weather with strong gusts which was an obstacle for all shooters: the best result (after the final) was just 88.
Other results:
She currently ranked as the 26th best trap shooter in the world by the International Shooting Sport Federation. In 2002 she ranked second.
After the Sydney games she became popular in Lithuania. She was invited to host a documentary television show "Farai" (English: cops). It follows the daily lives of Lithuanian policemen. She also worked with the State Border Guard Service.
In 2012 she beat Virgilijus Alekna in the election for the president of the National Olympic Committee of Lithuania.