USA Olympic Team - Rio

BattleCorp

Considering the amount of gun ownership in the US, I'm surprised that they won so few shooting medals in Rio this year.

Anyone any theories as to why they don't dominate sport shooting considering the amount of people who shoot over there?

Sparks

Not as much money in the ISSF stuff over there, and it's seen as more sedate, and they have a much larger tradition of shooting disciplines that use larger calibre firearms (and usually specific models of those firearms like the 1911 and AR-15). They did try some IPSC pistol shooters in ISSF pistol there as an experiment a few years ago; they wouldn't have been able to qualify in international competition and it would have taken them a long while to make the transition and get back to competitive standards (though I understood one of them did keep at it for some years and got up to national ranking standards), and without the money there for the local competitive circuit there was no motive for most of them to invest that much time and effort.

On the upside for them, Kim Rhode just won her sixth consecutive Olympic medal. That's six medals in six games, which is something no athlete (male or female) in any sport (shooting or otherwise) has ever done in the history of the summer games. Ever. Plus their rifle shooters are no slouches either, seeing as how they have world championships and olympic medals by the shoeboxfull (and technically, Campriani spent years training with them, so while he's on the Italian team, the US have at least a moral claim to a small amount of fame via him )

Grizzly 45

Proably the same reason like here,getting a sponsor for the ammo costs and all the rest.For clay,I'd assume 500 to 800 rounds per day would be a norm for Olympic hopefuls?And as Sparks pointed out,it isn't the sexiest disiplines of shooting in the Olympics either.Depending on your outlook of course..

IRLConor

Out of the rifle events, the USA underperformed in 2016 due to a number of factors. In the men's rifle events it was partly down to selection and partly down to some uncharacteristically poor performances.

In 50m men's prone, their top ranked guys were Emmons (6th in the world) and McPhail (8th in the world) but Emmons had a bad shoot in one of the selection matches and Higgins (unranked) got to go with McPhail. Now, Higgins is a great shooter but Emmons has a depth of experience on the circuit that's hard to match. He was the only guy to shoot 400/400 in the prone segment of the 3P match so his prone game was still clearly top notch.

In men's 50m 3P, the US had Emmons (1st in the world) and Lowe (unranked). They only had one quota place, but since Lowe was shooting in one of the 10m airgun quota slots and had a 3P MQS he was eligible to shoot the 3P as well. Emmons had an OK kneeling, perfect prone and then had a nightmare time in standing. Lowe performed pretty well. I can't find where he earned his MQS, so to finish 28/44 in that field is some achievement.

In men's 10m air rifle they had two quota places and their two top ranked shooters were Emmons (46th) and Roe (55th) so they wouldn't have been expecting a medal anyway. They selected Kozeniesky (98th) and Lowe (unranked). Kozeniesky equalled his international PB and Lowe exceeded his so you have to give credit where credit is due.

The women's side of their rifle team did much better. They only had one quota in each event and they selected well to maximise their chances.

In the 10m air rifle both Thrasher (23rd in the world) and Scherer (39th in the world) made the final. Thrasher got the gold and it was well deserved. She was ice cold in the final and that's seriously impressive from a 19 year old. Scherer was forced by the jury to change her buttplate just before the final so struggled, but had done very well to make the final since she missed a chunk of the qualification cycle due to needing surgery on her back.

It was Thrasher (11th in the world) and Scherer (22nd in the world) again in the women's three position. Thrasher missed out on the final by a single point and Scherer probably would have been on a very similar score except for she cross fired in her first standing shot so dropped 10 points.

IRLConor

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

For clay,I'd assume 500 to 800 rounds per day would be a norm for Olympic hopefuls?

Winchester cover their shells if I remember correctly. Not sure who covers the clays, but I'm pretty sure they're paid for as well. Two of them (Eller & Hancock) are paid by the US Army to shoot full time.