Birth in Peć/Peja

Majlinda Kelmendi was born on 9 May 1991 in the city of Peć (Peja), located in what was then the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. She was born into a period of rising ethnic tension between Kosovo Albanians and the Serbian-led Yugoslav authorities, just years before the Kosovo War (1998–1999) would devastate the region.

Her early childhood was shaped by hardship and instability, including the war and its aftermath, which affected access to sports facilities and normal training environments for young athletes in Kosovo. Despite these circumstances, she took up judo as a child, training in modest conditions that would later make her international successes even more remarkable.

Kelmendi's birthplace and generation are historically significant because she grew up alongside the emergence of Kosovo as a self-governing and eventually independent entity (Kosovo declared independence in 2008). Her later achievements as an athlete would become deeply intertwined with Kosovo's assertion of a distinct national and sporting identity on the world stage, culminating in her status as the country's first Olympic champion. Her birth in Peja is often cited in profiles as the starting point of a personal and national journey from a war-affected region to global sporting glory.