USA Shooting Names 2004 Athletes of the Year

[USA Shooting]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Based on their outstanding performances in major international competition during 2004, USA Shooting has officially announced that Kim Rhode (El Monte, Calif.) and Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, N.J.) are USA Shooting’s Athletes of the Year.

At 25 years old, Rhode won her third Olympic medal at this summer’s Games in Athens, Greece, making her the most decorated female shooter in U.S. history, winning two gold medals and a bronze in women’s double trap in three Olympic Games. Rhode also blew away the competition at the 2004 National Championships and Spring Selection Match.

Emmons, 23, clinched this honor with his superb performance at the 2004 Spring Selection Match, winning spots on the Olympic Team in all three events he shot. Then, at the Olympic Games, he sealed the deal with a gold medal in men’s prone rifle. More recently at the World Cup Final, he won a gold medal in men’s three-position and the bronze in men’s air rifle. Emmons won a silver at the Bangkok World Cup, in men’s air rifle, a bronze at the Sydney World Cup in men’s three-position, and finished in the top-eight of a number of other World Cup competitions.

USA Shooting also named their Athletes of the Year in all four shooting disciplines. Lance Bade, of Colorado Springs, Colo., fired his way to the top-honor in the shotgun discipline. Bade topped the results list at every National event he shot. Not to mention, he finished second at the Brazil World Cup, fourth at the World Cup Final, and fifth at the Olympic Games.

As for rifle, University of Alaska-Fairbanks shooter Jamie Beyerle (Lebanon, Pa.) joined Matt Emmons for the honor in this discipline. Although this wasn’t Beyerle’s year for making it on the Olympic Team, she definitely proved who was the best overall athlete in women’s rifle by winning an outstanding six medals at the National Championships. She also took a bronze medal in women’s three-position at the Bangkok World Cup in February.

In pistol, 2004 Olympians Beki Snyder (Grand Junction, Colo.) and Jason Turner (Colorado Springs, Colo.) earned the distinguishing title as Athletes of their discipline. Snyder finished in the top-two in both women’s sport and air pistol at the Spring Selection Match, winning a spot on the Olympic Team in both events. Turner had the same fate, winning a spot on the Olympic Team in both free pistol and air pistol. Both also put in a number of final appearances at International competitions throughout the year. Tuner made the finals at the Bavarian Air Gun match in Munich with a 584, and made the finals in free pistol at the Athens World Cup with a 565. Rebecca Snyder made the finals in Athens, in sport pistol, with a 583; and in Milan, in air pistol, with a 384.

For running target’s last year as an Olympic discipline, Adam Saathoff (Hereford, Ariz.) clinched the award. Saathoff has been the strongest U.S. running target shooter for the past four years and although it didn’t end the way he had hoped, with an eighth-place finish at the Olympic Games, he had a long string of great performances to dominate the field of shooters in and out of the U.S.

The Athletes of the Year will receive their awards at the 2005 SHOT Show in Las Vegas at the end of January. USA Shooting will host a luncheon at the convention center where it will not only recognize these outstanding athletes, but will announce the 2004 Olympic Team and the Hall of Fame Inductees.

For more information on the USA Shooting Team or its athletes, please log on to www.usashooting.org.