Miro Sipek


Miroslav "Miro" Šipek is an Australian rifle shooting coach. During his long and successful shooting career he was a champion of Yugoslavia 27 times in a range of disciplines. He won several medals at various international competitions and Balkans Championships, 4 silver medals at European Championships and a bronze at the 1970 World Championships in .
Miro represented Yugoslavia at the 1976 Montreal Olympics in rifle shooting. In 1992, he led the first Bosnian-Herzegovinian National Team from his war torn country to the Barcelona Summer Olympics. Miro was the coach for Australia's shooters at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. He was the coach for Australia's Paralympic shooters at the Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Personal

Born on 6 April 1948 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina where he attended Primary School, High School and University for Physical Education.
In 1973 he married Mirsada Čengić, club teammate and member of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian shooting team. Together they've had two children and four grandchildren.
He started playing sport at a young age and was a talented footballer and table tennis player. His shooting career started in 1965 when he joined ‘Mico Sokolovic’ Shooting Club in his home town of Sarajevo. Very next year, he became member of the most successful Yugoslav club 'Mile Vujocic Uco - Sarajevo'. He represented Yugoslavia as part of the Junior National Team 15 times, his first appearance being in Bucharest in 1965.
During his long and successful shooting career he was a champion of Yugoslavia 27 times in a range disciplines. He won number of medals at various international competitions and Balkans Championships, 4 silver medals at European Championships and a bronze at the World Championships in . He represented Yugoslavia at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
In 1969 he was honoured as the Athlete of the Year of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was a recipient of various regional and national honours and awards in ex-Yugoslavia, including the :bs:Orden zasluga za narod|'Silver Rays' which is the highest civilian decoration awarded by the late Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito.
In 1985 after more than 250 appearances for Yugoslav Team in competitions and championships all over the world, he retired from competing and continued his shooting career as a Coach and National Selector. In 1986, Miro led Yugoslav Shooting Team to World Championships Title in Suhl, Germany.
He worked as a High Performance Manager at the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Institute of Sport.
In 1992 he led the first Bosnian-Herzegovinian National Team from his war torn country to the Olympics in Barcelona.
His career continues in Australia where he moved with his family in 1995. He worked with the National Olympic Shooting Team of Australia from 1997 and took the team to the Olympics in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, as well as the Commonwealth Games in Manchester 2002 and Melbourne 2006. In 2009 he started working with the Australian Paralympic Shooting Team, whom he has been coaching until his retirement in January 2019.

Shooting

Sporting Achievements

Miro Sipek is a rifle shooting coach. He led Yugoslav Shooting Team to World Championships Title in 1986, Suhl.
From 1997 Miro has been coaching Australian Shooting Team. Shooters he has coached include Warren Potent, Ashley Adams,
Libby Kosmala, Jason Maroney, Tim Lowndes, Sue McCready, , , and Wieland, Nat Smith, Luke Cain, Anton Zappelli, Bradley Mark... He started coaching Ben Burge in 2003.
Miro was the coach for Australia's shooters at Olympics in:
He coached Australia's Paralympic shooters at the Paralympics in:
Miro was also shooting coach for Commonwealth Games in:
After 54 year carrier in shooting, first as an athlete and then as a coach, Miro finally retired for the sport in January 2019.