A Brief Recap of the Shooting Team Performances in Athens

[USAS]

A Brief Recap of the Olympic Shooting Team Performances in Athens

ATHENS – It is no secret that USA Shooting had huge expectations for one of the most experienced Olympic Teams it has seen in a long time. With a goal of six medals going into the Games, USA Shooting wanted to reiterate just how strong this year’s Team looked. But, as anyone who has been through the Games very well knows, the Olympics are their own type of animal, one that can’t be predicted or controlled. And although three medals-- two gold and one silver-- is a very successful showing at any international event, much less the Olympic Games, USA Shooting can honestly say that it had its fair share of disappointments throughout those very intense eight days of competition.

For the Olympic Shotgun Team, National Shotgun Coach Lloyd Woodhouse had maintained all along that, “with the right team, we could win those six Olympic medals just within the shotgun discipline.” And there was no question about it, Woodhouse had the right Team going into Athens. But within the first days of competition, it was evident they were not going to make that mark.

One of the favorites to medal, three-time Olympian Lance Bade (Vancouver, Wash.), had insisted this was the year for the gold. Bade started strong, shooting at the top of his game and battling through the windy conditions. Even after the qualifying round, the U.S. watched comfortably as Bade walked into the final tied for second place in the men’s trap event. But after missing an early target to stay tied with Italy’s Giovanni Pellielo for silver, Bade continued to drop three more targets—and you could just see the medal slip from his grasp. Bade finished in fifth after the finals and missed the medal stand by two targets.

A surprise performance from seventeen-year-old Collyn Loper (Indian Springs, Ala.) kept the American’s hopes alive up. Loper shot her way to a fourth-place finish in women’s trap, marking the USA’s highest finish to that point in some of the windiest conditions. Loper shot a score of 82 out of 100 targets.

But then it was back to disappointment, as the U.S. Olympic Shooting Team found itself in another tough position, as it failed to qualify for one of its more successful event’s finals—men’s double trap. Three-time Olympian, Sgt. First Class Bret Erickson (Bennington, Neb.) finished 13th, while the reigning World Champion and two-time Olympian Glenn Eller (Houston, Texas), finished 17th.

And finally, on the fifth day of competition, three-time Olympian Kim Rhode marked the first Olympic medal – a gold--for the U.S. Shotgun Team. Rhode, of El Monte, Calif, came into this event trying to shake off the disappointments of her team members and ended up tying the final Olympic record by hitting 148 out of 160 total targets. The three-time Olympian can now be referred to as a legend in women’s double trap. Her event has only appeared in three Olympic Games and Rhode has used this short-lived event to catapult herself into the history books, becoming the most decorated U.S. women’s shooting athlete in any event with two gold medals and one silver.

The men and women’s skeet events both had U.S. representation in the finals. With Sgt. First Class Shawn Dulohery giving it his all in the men’s skeet final. Dulohery shot 25-straight in the finals to remain tied with three other men for the bronze. In the shoot-off, however, Dulohery let his fifth target drop and was pushed into fifth place. Sgt. First Class Todd Graves was close behind tied for ninth with a 121. In the women’s event, Rhode finished fifth and Connie Smotek (Lyons, Texas) finished sixth.

The U.S. Olympic Pistol Team’s performance was one of the harder disciplines to predict. The U.S. hadn’t won an Olympic medal in pistol since 1988. But going into the Games, it was thought that if any group of pistol shooters could break that streak, it had to be this Team. With three-time Olympian’s Libby Callahan (Upper Marlboro, Md.) and Rebecca Snyder (Grand Junction, Colo.) shooting in the women’s events, and two very accomplished men’s shooters taking aim at the air and free pistol medals, the U.S. was very well represented. But when it came down to it, Callahan and Snyder just didn’t have their day in either event. Snyder was looking really strong in women’s sport, but fired late on one of her shots, marking a zero. In the men’s events, Sgt. First Class Daryl Szarenski, of the Army Marksmanship Unit, and Jason Turner, an Olympic Training Center resident, went through the same challenges. After all was said and done—the U.S. Olympic Pistol Team has been forced to wait another four years to try for a chance at that elusive medal stand.

The Olympic Running Target Team, however, wasn’t afforded that luxury. Athens marked the last Olympic Games for the entire discipline, and although the U.S. has never won a medal in the current event—men’s 10m 30+30--Adam Saathoff (Sierra Vista, Ariz.) definitely thought that he would change all that. The three-time Olympian found himself tied in second place after the first day’s slow-runs. The second day’s fast-run qualification round caught him off guard, however, and the three-time Olympian fell from the top of the leader board to eighth. Saathoff scored a 90 in his second series of 10, finishing with a 281 for the day and a 575 for a two-day total.

And last, but definitely not least, the most successful discipline for USA Shooting was Rifle. The U.S. Rifle Team found its way to the medal stand twice—once in men’s prone and once in men’s three-position—and although it did have an actual potential for three Olympic medals, the Team went home satisfied with its performance.

Matt Emmons (Browns Mills, N.J.), the first triple-qualifier in over 40 years for the U.S. Rifle Team, definitely made a name for himself in the smallbore events. He won the gold medal in prone, and finished by leading the men’s three-position down to the very last shot. Emmons proved himself the best shooter overall in both events, but could not seal the deal in three-position after he cross-fired at the next opponents target, marking a zero on the last shot of the event.

Major Mike Anti (Fort Benning, Ga.) was there to pick up the silver medal in that three-position event for the U.S. Anti had gone into the finals in seventh, six points off of first. But in the finals, Anti shot a 98.1, the best score on the line to overcome Christain Planer, of Austria, by three-tenths of a point for the silver medal. Anti accomplished both of his long-term goals in that one short finals match. He not only shook his string of bad finals, finishing with the highest finals score of the group, but also won his first Olympic medal in an event he has dedicated 25 years of his life to.

The men’s air rifle event saw the (then) world record holder Jason Parker (Omaha, Neb.) in the finals. He finished eighth after all was said and done. Emmons just missed the finals by finishing ninth in men’s air. Within women’s air rifle, Emily Caruso was also right on the finals edge. She was tied with six other women for the last three places in the finals round, however, was pushed out through a tie breaking procedure, finishing ninth overall. Spc. Hattie Johnson finished in 14th with a 394, marking one of her best performances in an international competition. Washington residents, Sarah Blakeslee and Morgan Hicks were the two representatives in women’s three-position. Hicks came in 12th with a 577, while Blakeslee shot a 571 for a 20th place finish.

For more information and the complete story on the U.S. Olympic Shooting Team, please look for a full recap of the Olympic Games coming out in the Olympic special of USA Shooting News.