Denisa Baránková

Denisa Hurban Baránková (7 September 2001 – 22 June 2026) was a Slovak archer. Her biggest achievement came at the 2025 World Games in Chengdu, China, where she took gold in the women’s individual recurve. She also shot in the women’s individual event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Baránková joined the Slovak national team in 2017 and went on to compete at events like the 2019 European Games. In 2021, she became the first Slovak archer to qualify for the World Games, doing so at the European Field Championship. She represented Slovakia at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, United States, in the women’s individual recurve.

At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she was seeded 48th in the ranking round and lost in the elimination round to Amélie Cordeau, 3–7. In October 2025, she married her personal trainer, Vladimír Hurban, who was six years older and had coached her at her two previous Olympic appearances.

Baránková died on 22 June 2026, at age 24, in Kramáre Hospital in Bratislava. She was hit by a vehicle on Osuského Street in Petržalka; the car had gone out of control after firefighters freed it from a tree that had fallen on it during a windstorm. More than 300 people attended her funeral.