As the page on the calendar turned from July to August, the hope is the prospects of the USA Shooting team will turn as well, and that may be the case with Sagen Maddalena leading the 50m Rifle 3 Position after the qualifying round.
But that’s for Friday. Today is day seven of Olympic shooting, and the U.S. hasn’t been on the podium once, leaving many extremely disappointed U.S. shooters and the Stars and Stripes on the sidelines.
The failure to medal after a six-medal performance in Tokyo, three medals in Rio, four medals in London, six in Beijing, three in Athens, and three in Sydney—well, I think you get the picture. And it’s a murky one. That forces a fundamental question: What’s wrong with USA Shooting?
Ironically, the answer in discussions with shooters, coaches, and the newly minted head of USA Shooting morphs into how good the competition and the fact that the US is competing against the best shooters in the world.
When the U.S. team came to France for the Olympics, they couldn’t have thought this was going to be a taffy pull. It’s just a given that the best athletes in the world are here, there’s always some arguing around the fringes about whether one athlete or another should have been selected for the team. Caitlin Clark and Bryson DeChambeau come to mind in other sports, but for USA Shooting, the best we have are here in Paris, which makes the results so far even more frustrating.
But arguing that the US is competing against the best as if that’s a legitimate reason for the team’s disappointing performance makes me wonder if we are approaching the success and failure of our athletes correctly. Millions are spent preparing the athletes to shoot against the best every day. Success is only evaluated by medal count where the only return of investment that matters are gold, silver, or bronze.
It doesn’t matter if the competition in Paris is a weak field or a strong field one. All that matters is that an American is standing on the podium, and the stars and stripes are waving over the athlete…hopefully with the national anthem playing in the background.
More athletes will fail this week than succeed. Of the American shooters, most of them came here with a legitimate chance at a medal, so when those dreams were dashed, the look on their faces says it all, and it’s heartbreaking as you feel for the shooter who spent four years preparing for the Olympics and has that dream dashed in a morning or afternoon.
Ultimately, the U.S. shooters haven’t perform up to their capabilities over the last seven days, which should be a more significant concern. No matter what happens over the rest of the Olympics, the U.S. will require self-reflection and a thorough analysis to determine the best course of action.
Like many other sports, you can’t play defense in competitive shooting. If US shooters compete to their best level, that should be enough against the rest of the world.
USA Shooting is on the clock and they need to do what’s required to improve the outcome in the rest of these games and in Los Angeles in 2028.
The answer is obvious: the U.S. is relying on DEI athletes.