Olympic Gold Medalist to Lead Air Force Shooting Team
Launi Meili, Olympic Gold Medalist (Barcelona 1992), and 7-time National Champion in three-position rifle, has been named head rifle coach at the Air Force Academy. Meili comes to the academy from the University of Nebraska, where she led the Cornhuskers to a No. 2 national ranking this season and earned “Coach of the Year” honors in 2006. “Coach Meili brings a wealth of experience as not only a proven NCAA Division I head coach, but a world-class competitor as well,” said Col. Billy Walker, the Air Force Academy’s Assoc. Athletics Director. “I’m quite certain Coach Meili will develop us into one of the elite programs in the country.”
As a shooting competitor, Meili shot with the U.S. Shooting team for 10 years. In that time, Meili participated in two Olympic Games, two Pan American games and a World Championship. During her career, she produced three world records, three Olympic records, a world team championship and the Olympic Gold medal in Barcelona in 1992, becoming the only American woman to ever win gold in smallbore. She has written the Advanced Coaches Certification Program in use by the US Shooting Team and the NRA to certify coaches at the highest level. She has also created the “mental training workshop” taught to athletes, coaches and business personnel in the US and Japan.
