SHOT Show Report: Matt Emmons, U.S.A Olympic Shooter
27-year-old Matt Emmons has been one of the top American shooters in international Smallbore Rifle and Air Rifle competition. Matt, a member of the U.S. Olympic Team, won a Silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in mens’ prone and won Gold at the Athens Olympics in the same event. He is a co-holder of the 50m rifle prone world record (600 points), and has been a multiple-event winner at the ISSF World Cup.
In 2007, Matt married Czech shooter Katerina Kurkova. “Katy” earned fame as the winner of the first Gold Medal in the Beijing Olympics (see photo below). A husband and wife “dream team”, Matt and Katy are probably the most famous couple in the shooting sports. Matt is currently training for the 2012 Olympics. Wife Katy is now pregnant, but she’ll rejoin Matt in training after the baby’s born.
Jason Baney has a chance to talk with Matt at SHOT Show where Matt appeared on behalf of USA Shooting, the U.S. national governing body for Olympic Shooting Sports. Jason notes: “It was great to talk to Matt about shooting, though we practice very different disciplines. At 27 Matt is the same age as me, and we’ve both recently been married, so we had things in common. Matt is a very cool, humble down-to-earth guy.” If we can clear it with Matt’s sponsors, we’d love to have Matt test some match rifles for AccurateShooter.com.
