Fort Benning, GA -(AmmoLand.com)- Years of build up. Hours upon hours of prep. Bullets cast and guns raised. All for a 10-day period of time that defines our existence as athletes and a sport. Welcome to the Olympic & Paralympic year.
There’s really nothing like it. Athletes and Olympic organizations spending endless amounts of time and resources for the very special opportunity to represent America during the world’s grandest sporting spectacle.
This much we know. Twenty-five shooting team athletes will be fortunate enough to compete. Six have earned their ticket now, and another 19 more will join them in the months to come as we get ready to rally behind a team of shooting stars and boast about how SHOOTING IS OUR OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC SPORT.
Proven commodities like Matt Emmons, Vincent Hancock, Glenn Eller, Keith Sanderson and Michael McPhail showcased their Olympic readiness in 2015 and stand ready to add to USA Shooting’s impressive Olympic medal count. Skeet World Champion Morgan Craftoutshot a distinguished class, including her own teammates, to jump up on stage with this elite field.
Who will be joining them? With stars like Kim Rhode and Corey Cogdell-Unrein still trying to secure their spot along with a cast of both established veterans and new shooting talent, the competition to fill out the remaining spots will be intense.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing what my team does next year,” Emmons says. “I truly believe we have so much potential for greatness. If everyone does their part (athletes and staff), works hard in their respective areas, and works to create that exciting and positive environment we’ve had in the past, there’s no telling what we can do. It’s going to be fun!”
The first Paralympic World Cup is set for January 23-27. The first Rifle/Pistol World Cup will take place March 1-9 followed by the first Shotgun World Cup of the season March 17-25. Five smallbore (.22 caliber) athletes will earn Olympic Team nomination by April 8. Four shotgun athletes will earn Olympic Team nomination by May 25. The final five Olympic Team athletes will earn their nominations in Airgun events by June 5.
Learn more about the 2016 Olympic/Paralympic journey for USA Shooting’s athletes here. Click on the link for the 2016 USA Shooting Event Calendar
SHOOTING IS OUR OLYMPIC SPORT. MAKE IT YOURS TOO!
As demonstrated in the past, the athletes are sure to do their part to make us proud. But, this Olympic and Paralympic year will be that much more special if we all do our part to reach out to someone and bring them along for the ride.
With Rio in Sight, we want the shooting sports community to declare shooting as their Olympic & Paralympic sport. Rallying our community, quite frankly, is the only way we’re going to maintain our history of success, a past that includes 107 medals including four in the most recent Olympic Games in London.
Despite the vast array of opportunity to compete and showcase the skills we value as gun owners, the gold standard of marksmanship still resides with the USA Shooting Team and their pursuit of Olympic and Paralympic medals. The tenets that have built the shooting sports into what it is today evoke passion, advocacy, nationalistic pride and tradition. There is no greater representative of those values for the shooting sports than the members of America’s Shooting Team. Our team carries on the proud tradition of medal-winning success and shooting skill unlike any other country in the world, exemplifying the greatest defense possible for protecting, preserving and promoting the shooting sports legacy of this country.
Our team in 2016 will epitomize the very essence of the shooting sports by their pursuit, dedication, discipline, responsibility and representation. Quite simply, our athletes continue to set the bar as positive role models for the shooting sports and continually represent positive virtues for the gun culture to recognize.
Beyond the headlines, the rhetoric and constitutional battles the common thread among us all is that we simply love to shoot. No matter your age, sex or ethnicity, our bond is the joy we extract by pulling a trigger whether for sport, competition, meat or simply for fun.
Representing a sport misunderstood, under-appreciated and over-looked, our athletes don the Red, White and Blue across this country and around the globe in pursuit of Olympic and Paralympic glory. This pursuit happens in the shadows of a society with a deep-seated professional sports loyalty and an Olympic enthusiasm with a far greater attraction to swimmers, runners and gymnasts.
For those reasons and more, they won’t be included in the glitzy pre-Games promotions from sponsors nor the television networks, magazines and newspapers. In all likelihood you won’t find them on the primetime telecasts during the Games, nor will they be the front-page story.
The only way the story is going to be told is if we collectively come together to tell it. It’s all about campaigns in 2016 and thus we’ll launch our very own to try and unite the shooting sports community around the idea that shooting should be the Olympic sport for those who share the same interest.
The bottom line is this. Our athletes are the story. Collectively they represent everything that we love about the shooting sports. Their story can’t be told enough and as you cheer them on along their Road to Rio and beyond, recognize what opportunity this next year provides to help change the narrative and to give the gun culture something to be proud of and stand behind. One Team in 2016. Go USA!
CHECK OUT OUR YEAR-IN-REVIEW ISSUE OF USA SHOOTING NEWS.
About ELEY:
ELEY is a Proud Sponsor of the USA Shooting Rifle and Pistol Teams: ELEY Limited, manufacturer of the world’s most consistently accurate rimfire ammunition, has been the Official Sponsor and Official Supplier of .22 rimfire ammunition of the USA Shooting rifle and pistol teams since 2000.
For more information on ELEY and their products, please visit www.eley.co.uk.
About Winchester Ammunition:
Winchester Ammunition is a Proud Sponsor of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team: Winchester Ammunition has been the exclusive ammunition sponsor and supplier of the USA Shooting Shotgun Team since 1999. Members of the past two shotgun teams brought home a combined six medals from London and Beijing using Winchester AA International Target loads. Winchester is an industry leader in advancing and supporting conservation, hunter education and our country’s proud shooting sports heritage.
For more information about Winchester and its complete line of products, visit www.Winchester.com.
About USA Shooting:
USA Shooting, a 501c3 non-profit corporation, was chartered by the United States Olympic Committee as the National Governing Body for the sport of shooting in April 1995. USA Shooting’s mission is to prepare American athletes to win Olympic medals, promote the shooting sports throughout the U.S. and govern the conduct of international shooting in the country.
Check us out on the web at usashooting.org and on Twitter at twitter.com/USAShooting.