Mirela Skoko-Ćelić

Mirela Skoko-Ćelić (born 24 June 1964 in Bapska, SR Croatia) is a Croatian sport shooter.[2] She has competed for Croatia in pistol shooting at three Olympics (1992, 1996, and 2004), and has been close to an Olympic medal in 1992 (finishing fourth in the sport pistol). Outside her Olympic career, Skoko-Celic has produced a career tally of five medals in a major international competition, a total of three (one silver and three bronze) at numerous meets of the ISSF World Cup series and a silver in the air pistol at the 2002 European Championships.[1]

Mirela Skoko-Ćelić
Personal information
Full nameMirela Skoko-Ćelić
Nationality Croatia
Born (1964-06-24) 24 June 1964
Bapska, SR Croatia,
SFR Yugoslavia
Height1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)
Weight54 kg (119 lb)
Sport
SportShooting
Event(s)10 m air pistol (AP40)
25 m pistol (SP)
ClubSC Osijek 1874[1]
Coached byZvonimir Kovačević[1]
Medal record
Women's shooting
Representing  Croatia
European Championships
Silver medal – second place 2002 Thessaloniki AP40

Career

Having pursued the sport since the age of eighteen, Skoko-Celic has been training throughout her shooting career under coach and her eventual husband Zvonimir Kovačević at SC Osijek 1874.[1][3]

Skoko-Celic competed internationally for the former SFR Yugoslavia at the age of twenty-one, and eventually got off to a brilliant career start with a bronze medal each at the ISSF World Cup series in 1986 and in 1991. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia one year later, Skoko-Celic, along with her sister Suzana, made her first ever Olympic team under the independent nation Croatia at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. From there, she finished eleventh in the air pistol with 380, and then launched a near-perfect 99 in the sport pistol final to chase 1988 Olympic champions Nino Salukvadze of the Unified Team (now representing Georgia) and her fellow former Yugoslav markswoman Jasna Šekarić for fourth place with 677, narrowly missing out a chance for her (and Croatia's) first Olympic medal by two points.[4][5]

In 1993, Skoko-Celic reached the peak of her career by capturing her first silver medal in air pistol shooting at the ISSF World Cup meet in Munich, Germany, firing a total score of 484.3 points, a stark improvement from her remarkable fourth-place effort at the Olympics.[1]

On her second Olympic appearance in Atlanta 1996, Skoko-Celic came up with a steady aim at 381 points to force a four-way tie for the tenth position in the air pistol, and had rapidly slipped down the leaderboard through a terrible rapid-fire stage feat to a distant thirty-sixth place in the sport pistol field, finishing with a total score of 561.[6][7]

Despite missing out the 2000 Olympic bid, Skoko-Celic came back with a vengeance for her third Games by firing a fifth-place score of 482.1 in air pistol shooting at the 2002 ISSF World Championships in Lahti, Finland.[8] She also won a silver medal at the European Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece, finishing with a total of 481.6.[9]

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Skoko-Celic qualified as a lone shooter for her third Croatian squad in both air and sport pistol. She managed to get a minimum qualifying score of 384 on her former event to gain an Olympic quota place for Croatia in shooting, following a fifth-place finish at the Worlds two years earlier.[1][8][10] Coming to the Games as fifth in the world ranking, Skoko-Celic fired a frustrating 381 out of a possible 400 to take the fifteenth position in the 10 m air pistol, just three points away from her pre-Olympic qualifying standard.[11] Two days later, in the 25 m pistol, Skoko-Celic gave herself a chance for an Olympic final by shooting 289 in the precision stage and 280 in rapid-fire for a total tally of 569 points, ending the Games in a two-way tie with Olympic bronze medalist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine for twenty-seventh place.[3][12]

Olympic results
Event 1992 1996 2004
25 metre pistol 4th
578+99		 36th
561		 27th
569
10 metre air pistol 11th
380		 10th
381		 15th
381

References
  1. "ISSF Profile – Mirela Skoko-Ćelić". ISSF. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  2. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Mirela Skoko-Ćelić". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  3. "Mirela Skoko-Ćelić nije uspjela – za finale nedostajala tri kruga" [Mirela Skoko-Ćelić failed to reach the final after missing three rounds] (in Croatian). Index.hr. 15 August 2004. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  4. "Barcelona 1992: Shooting – Women's 10m Air Pistol" (PDF). Barcelona 1992. LA84 Foundation. p. 348. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  5. "Barcelona 1992: Shooting – Women's 25m Pistol" (PDF). Barcelona 1992. LA84 Foundation. p. 347. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  6. "Atlanta 1996: Shooting – Women's 10m Air Pistol" (PDF). Atlanta 1996. LA84 Foundation. p. 118. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  7. "Atlanta 1996: Shooting – Women's 25m Pistol" (PDF). Atlanta 1996. LA84 Foundation. p. 117. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  8. "Svjetsko prvenstvo u streljaštvu - Mirela Skoko Čelić ispunila normu za nastup u Ateni 2004" [World Shooting Championships: Mirela Skoko-Ćelić achieves her standard for Athens 2004]. hoo.hr (in Croatian). Croatian Olympic Committee. 10 July 2002. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  9. "Srebrno odličje za MIrelu Skoko-Ćelić" [Silver medal for Mirela Skoko-Ćelić]. hoo.hr (in Croatian). Croatian Olympic Committee. 22 March 2002. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  10. "Shooting 2004 Olympic Qualification" (PDF). Majority Sports. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  11. "Shooting: Women's 10m Air Pistol Prelims". Athens 2004. BBC Sport. 15 August 2004. Archived from the original on 24 April 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  12. "Shooting: Women's 25m Pistol Prelims". Athens 2004. BBC Sport. 15 August 2004. Archived from the original on 24 April 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
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