Slovakia has experienced a historic moment in Tokyo. Slovak shooter Zuzana Rehák Štefečeková has won the gold medal in the women’s trap event at the 2020 summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, becoming the first member of the Slovak team competing in Japan to win a medal. The gold medal is the high point of the 37-year-old shooter’s career so far, and it is the third medal she won at an Olympic Games. At home, she already has two silver medals: from Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
“I was not thinking about it, even though other people reminded me. I was very content with my qualification, where I reached a world record. I thought to myself that even if there is not a medal in the end, no one takes this record away from me,” said the golden shooter after the finals. Competing in a six-member final, Rehák Štefečeková hit 43 of the 50 targets and set a new Olympic record. She set the new world record during qualification for the final, when she showed a flawless performance hitting all 125 targets in five series.
Meanwhile, the silver medal was won by US shooter Kayle Browning and the bronze went to San Marino’s Alessandra Perilli, who won the first-ever medal for her country at the Olympics.
The victory of Zuzana Rehák Štefečeková received countless reactions already minutes following her performance. “A beautiful success confirming, once again, that we have sporting talent in Slovakia,” said Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OĽaNO) on Thursday. Meanwhile, President Zuzana Čaputová stated that Rehák Štefečeková’s “extraordinary” performance deserves to be admired.
After competing at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics, Zuzana Rehák Štefečeková gave birth to her oldest son Nathan in 2016 and thus did not compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Her second son Noah was born in 2019. That year she also stated that motherhood made her more mature and also gave her other priorities in life, nonetheless she cannot imagine retiring. In June 2019, she was appointed president of Special Olympics Slovakia, championing the idea that people with an intellectual impairment can exceed their own limits.
