Zuzana Štefečeková

Career

Her first big successes were bronze medals from 2002 World and European Junior Championships. As a junior, she also competed in double trap, her best result was the 6th place from the 2001 World Junior Championships. As a senior, she has all three medals from the World Championships: bronze from 2003, silver from 2011, where only Liu Yingzi defeated her and gold from 2010, with 72 hits in qualification and 19 in final, beating Liu Yingzi and Jessica Rossi. At the European Shooting Championships, she took a medal from every competition since 2013, her total score is two gold, three silver and two bronze medals. At the first European Games, with Erik Varga, they won a gold medal in the mixed trap event. She also won seven individual World Cup events, including two World Cup finals.

Olympic Games

She entered the 2008 Summer Olympics as a holder of the qualification (74 hits) and final (96) world records which she achieved in 2006 at the World Cup event in Qingyuan. She won the qualification round, but placed second in the final, where she missed two more targets than Satu Mäkelä-Nummela. Her world records lasted to the 2012 Summer Olympics, where they were overcomed by Jessica Rossi, who missed only one target in the whole competition. Štefečeková was the most successful in the silver medal shoot-off, beating Delphine Réau and Alessandra Perilli. She is the first sports shooter who managed to defend her medal in the women's trap competition at the Olympic Games. Despite she qualified for 2016 Summer Olympics, she did not compete due her maternity leave.

Personal life

Štefečeková is a committed Christian, she studied missionary and charitable work in Bratislava. In 2016, she gave birth to a son, Nahtan.