USA Shooting sent nine women and 11 men to Tokyo and finished the 2020 summer Olympic Games with medals in six shooting sports events. As noted in a press release by Team USA, the six medals earned by this year's shooting sports athletes in Tokyo-- three gold, two silver and one bronze-- is double the total brought back from Rio in 2016 and is the most since 2008. 

First on the podium at the Asaka Shooting Range was William Shaner who pulled down gold in the Men's 10m Air Rifle event on July 25, beating out two Chinese athletes who were left to pick up the silver and bronze. Of note, Shaner's final round score was 251.6, just 1.2 points short of the world record. At age 20, he is the youngest American man to compete in an Olympic rifle event.

The following day brought a sweep of the Men's and Women's Skeet events, with Vincent Hancock and Amber English landing gold medals in their respective competitions while setting new Olympic records. The win for Hancock, a four-time Olympian, was his third gold in the sport. 

July 27 saw Americans Mary Tucker and Lucas Kozeniesky bring silver in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event, only narrowly being surpassed by a strong team from China. 

On July 29, in the final for Women's Trap, Team USA's Kayle Browning went head to head in a nail biter against Slovakia’s Zuzana Rehák-Štefečeková, ending up with silver after breaking 42 of 50 targets, just one less than Rehak who set a new Olympic record in the event.

In addition to being a champion clay target shooter, Browning is a lifelong hunter and an ambassador for Federal. She talks about how she got into the shooting sports, below. 

 

 

Finally, on July 31, Americans Madelynn Ann Bernau and Brian Burrows picked up bronze in the first-ever Olympic Mixed Trap team event with a shootout win over Slovakia.

Banner image: Army 1st Lt. Amber English holds her Gold Medal at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, July 26, 2021. (Photo: U.S. Army)

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