Shooting Preview
As USA Shooting prepares for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, it is launching the #RaiseTheFlag campaign, a motivational driver to pursue all available resources in support of athletes to reach their goals in Olympic competition.
Leading the way for USA Shooting and this campaign is Olympic Games veteran and world champion Kim Rhode. While world champion and six-time Olympic Games veteran currently occupies an alternate team position for Tokyo 2021, she has her sights set on the next Olympic Games in Paris and Los Angeles.
Other U.S. shotgun athletes are poised to break out on the Olympic stage in Tokyo, such as Team USA veteran Vincent Hancock. Hancock is in pursuit of his fourth straight Olympic Games, having earned back-to-back gold medals at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
The spotlight will also fall on the U.S. men’s trap program, as it fields its first Olympians since 2008. The historic 1-2 finish by Brian Burrows and Derek Haldeman at the 2019 Pan American Games secured two quota places for Team USA after a 12-year drought. Burrows and Haldeman went on to fill those quotas by qualifying for the Olympic Team and will get the chance to prove themselves on the Olympic stage next year in Tokyo.
Olympic air rifle gold medalist Ginny Thrasher graduated from West Virginia University in 2019 and has moved to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to prepare for the Tokyo Games. She will have a chance to earn a spot on the Olympic smallbore rifle team at Olympic Trials later this year. Mary Tucker and Ali Weisz earned spots on the Olympic Team in women’s air rifle back in February 2020.
Aiming for the Olympic smallbore rifle team, which has not yet been selected, two-time Olympian Michael McPhail is reinventing himself as a three-position rifle specialist following the removal of prone rifle, his previous specialty, from the Olympic program. He recently finished third in three-position rifle at the 2018 world championships. Other rifle athletes to watch include 2016 Olympian Lucas Kozeniesky and 2012 Olympian Nick Mowrer, already a 2021 Olympian in men’s air pistol. Kozeniesky and William Shaner earned spots on the Olympic men’s air rifle team in February 2020.
The U.S. pistol team is primed for a youthful resurgence with the rise of Alexis Lagan. With a pistol program desperate for success, Lagan represents the next generation of athletes ready to take her sport higher. She won her Olympic quota, four gold medals, and one silver medal at the 2018 Championship of the Americas. Other strong pistol contenders include 2012 Olympians Sandra Uptagrafft and Mowrer, as well as Tokyo quota-earner James Hall. For rapid fire pistol athlete Keith Sanderson, the Tokyo Games will mark his fourth Olympic appearance.
Updated on July 19, 2020. For more information, contact the sport press officer here.