The shooting competition in the Paris Olympics concluded today with the U.S. team of Vince Hancock and Austen Smith winning silver in Mixed Team Skeet. It was the fourth medal by US skeet shooters and the fifth shooting medal of the games for the Americans.
The total of one gold, two silvers, and a bronze medal was the most impressive Olympic performance by USA shotgunners. Since winning America’s first skeet medal — a gold by Matthew Dryke in 1984 in Los Angeles — the U.S. team has won a total of eight shotgun sports medals: five gold, a silver, and two bronze. But the U.S. has never won four skeet medals in a single Olympics.
When Sagen Maddalena won a silver in the Women’s 50 meter 3-position rifle competition on Friday, she broke team USA’s shooting drought and began a string of five medals, one short of the team’s medal count in Tokyo.
While the shotgunners’ performance has made this a successful Olympics for Team USA, reading between the lines reveals that USA Shooting has a long way to go before 2028 in Los Angeles.
Rifle and pistol shooters mostly didn’t show up for these games, aside from Maddalena’s silver and a fourth-place finish in Women’s Air Rifle. While rifle shooters have had a history of success for the USA in the Olympics, pistol shooters haven’t earned a medal since in 2008 Beijing.
New USA Shooting CEO Kelly Reisdorf told QA Outdoors that for rifle and pistol . . .
There’s a real range access issue in the country and this is not new to industry, folks. I mean, we have a constant battle for ranges basically across the country. But for ranges that we have where athletes that can train out for rifle and pistol, there’s a real shortage. So we are geographically inherently limited by that.
Identifying the problem and providing a solution are two different things. But the real answer is identifying shooters that are committed, no matter what the facility challenges may be.
Nothing proved that better than Adriana Ruano of Guatemala, who won gold in Women’s Trap. For most of 2023, she had no coach or access to ammunition in her country. Yet she won gold at the Pan American Games in Santiago and here in Paris. A country with one range and limited financial support managed to produce a gold medal winner.
Back to Reisdorf. She’s part of what’s been a revolving door of CEOs at USA Shooting. All talked a good game and left for other places with nothing really accomplished. Mary Tucker, an Olympian in Tokyo and Paris, wonders if Reisdorf will be the savior the program needs . . .
I’m not really sure what to think of her as she says she likes athletes a lot but has never spoken to any of us. So that’s a little bit unfortunate. And I’m probably not supposed to say that. Hopefully, she does actually start talking to us and start doing what she says she’s gonna do. But it’s always kind of skeptical. We’ve had a lot of CEOs in the past, and no one’s ever really helped us out very much.
Tucker now lives in the Czech Republic and is unsure of her future since she receives such a small amount of monetary support from the governing body. Money, access to ranges, equipment, coaching, and support for travel are required to support athletes in USA Shooting.
“I don’t really know what’s gonna happen. I’m not really sure what’s gonna go on. I guess, we don’t get paid very much, so unfortunately, that is a factor that I have to consider. I have to try and find something because I’m not in university anymore.”
USA Shooting needs to step up with better support for its athletes as well as identifying new shooters who can compete globally. If you want to know who can help, Reisdorf may want to talk to Vincent Hancock.
Five Olympics, five medals, four gold, and one silver are just part of what Hancock does well. He also coaches Austen Smith and Connor Prince, who won silver in skeet. Hancock is responsible, in one way or another, for all four shotgun medals won in Paris.
Los Angeles will come up fast and the need to draft and execute a plan starts now.
