Guy Starik is a name familiar to most in the world of Olympic Rifle shooting. He has been ranked amongst the best prone shooters in the world for over a decade and has coached some of the most talented and success junior shooters ever!
Starik was born in the city of Jerusalem in Israel in 1965. At the age of 12 he discovered his passion for shooting and became an active member of the local shooting club. Within four short years he had qualified for, and joined the Israeli National shooting team, and has never looked back!
Israel was somewhat isolated when it came to Olympic shooting knowledge back in those days, so Starik had to teach himself what he needed to know to progress in the sport. He made an effort to speak to as many coaches and international shooters when he traveled, and read every book he could find on the subject of Olympic Shooting and sports Psychology.
Back in 1987 Guy started studying at the renowned Wingate Sports Institute and 2 years later was qualified as a sports coach in the field of Shooting. His motivation was to be able to work within the shooting sports, and so keep himself on the range and training daily, while earning a living doing what he loved.
In 1992 Starik was selected as the Israeli Junior National Team coach, and soon after, in 1994, his student Yoav Zeevi won the World Championship title in the 3×40 event.
Four years later, in 1998, the title was retained by Israel, when another student of Stariks’, Anton Katz won that title again. Stariks’ reputation as a world-class coach was catching up with his reputation as a competitor!
Since then, Starik has coached shooters to no fewer than 4 European Championships and many more top level international titles. He has been the full time coach of the Israeli National team since 2002.
These days, Starik works with three extremely talented young shooters: Sergey Richter, who is the Junior world record holder in air rifle (599) and holds a quota for 2012 Olympics, Leor Madlal, prone Silver medalist at the WCH 2010 and a finalist in his first year as a man at the ECH 2011, and the junior prone Bronze medalist from ECH 2011 Immi Ben Hefer.
Starik has also been coaching the Israeli Para-Olympic shooters since 1995 and his student Doron Shaziri has won five Olympic medals under his guidance.
Starik’s impressive resume as a Coach is equaled by his own personal achievements in the Olympic Rifle shooting sports. His successes include the following:
2010:
Silver Medal in World Cup Belgrad Serbia.
2009:
Gold Medal in World Cup Munich Germany.
2008:
Equal World Record 600 points in World Cup Munich.
2007:
Silver Medal in World cup Resende Brasil.
2006:
Silver Medal in World Cup, Munich Germany
Bronze medal in World Cup, Gunazhou, China
Silver Medal in World Cup final Granada Spain.
2005:
Gold Medal in European Championships, Belgrad, Serbia.
Bronze Medal, World Cup Fort-Benning, USA
2004:
Gold Medal, Pre-Olympic World Cup, Athenes, Greece
2003:
Gold Medal in World Cup, Munich, Germany
2002:
Silver Medal in World Cup, Munich, Germany
1998:
4th place in World Championships, Barcelona, Spain
1997:
Gold Medal in World Cup, Milan, Italy
Starik has been ranked amongst the top 10 Prone Rifle shooters in the world for the past 10 years, an achievement not match by many. He is ranked 5th ever in Prone medals at the World Cups!
For more than 30 years, Starik and lived and breathed Olympic Rifle shooting, both as a top level International Competitor and as one of the sports most successful coaches. There are very few who can match Stariks’ comprehensive first hand knowledge of Rifle Shooting, and he is always willing to share and teach, as well as learn and advance.
He is one of the sports true professionals.
In recent months, Starik has begun to apply his knowledge and expertise to developing products for top level shooting. Together with Double-Alpha Academy, he developed the new Target Tracker Application for the Iphone – a useful training aid for all shooters.
Along with Centra, he brought to market the innovative Starik Tube – a combined barrel extension and tuner which is already proving hugely success.