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| Human Interest | |
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Further Personal Information | |
| Residence | Port Stephens, NSW, AUS |
General Interest | |
| Famous relatives | His father Con was a competitive shooter. (sportsillustrated.cnn.com, 16 Jan 2004) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Why this sport? | His father competed in shooting and managed a gun club in Sydney, NSW, Australia. "I always wanted to be like dad and I took a liking to the sport he was doing." |
General Interest | |
| Most influential person in career | His father. (Sydney Morning Herald, 04 Sep 2008) |
| Hero / Idol | His father. (Athlete, 16 Apr 2002) |
| Awards and honours | He has received a Medal of the Order of Australia [OAM]. (michaeldiamond.net.au, 29 Sep 2011) He was named the New South Wales Shooter of the Year for 11 consecutive years. (michaeldiamond.net.au, 29 Sep 2011) He has been inducted into the Australian Sports Hall of Fame and also the Australian Clay Target Hall of Fame. (michaeldiamond.net.au, 29 Sep 2011) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Handedness | Right eye, right hand |
| Training Regime | He trains with his shotgun only once every two weeks. He also has a programme to work on his fitness. |
| When and where did you begin this sport? | He began shooting clay targets at age eight, a year after being bought his first air rifle. |
International Debut | |
| Tournament | World Cup Shooting |
Further Personal Information | |
| Languages | English, Greek |
General Interest | |
| Sporting philosophy / motto | "Work hard, play hard, take each day as it comes." (NOC, 02 Sep 2010) |
| Other information | TIME AWAY FROM THE RANGE He trains at the range once every two weeks. He believes not practising as often as other shooters helps him retain his mental sharpness and will prolong his ability to compete at the top level. "I've done more than 10,000 hours of practice so, that's not what's going to make me perfect. What's going to make me perfect on the day is being able to control my emotions, my feelings under extreme conditions and pressure and just focusing on the target at hand rather than anybody else." (foxsports.com.au, 27 Jul 2014; portstephensexaminer.com.au, 16 Feb 2016) LONG WAIT His gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was the first Australian shooting gold since Donald Mackintosh at the 1900 Games in Paris. He successfully defended his title four years later in Sydney, which was only the second time this had been achieved by a trap shooter. (michaeldiamond.net.au, 29 Sep 2011) |
Further Personal Information | |
| Family | Three children, including daughters Isabella and Angelica |
General Interest | |
| Ambitions | To equal Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser's record of winning three gold medals in the same sport at an Olympic Games, and also to compete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, and at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (portstephensexaminer.com.au, 16 Feb 2016) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Name of coach | Valeriy Timokhin [national] |
Further Personal Information | |
| Other names | Michael Diamondopolous |