Team USA Rifle Shooters Head to Peru for Pan-American Games
Seven United States rifle competitors, including Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher, will compete for Team USA at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. The XVIII Pan American Games will be contested July 26 – August 11 and will feature over 6,500 athletes from 41 nations.
Athletes were determined based on results of the 2019 Spring Selection Match held March 25-30 in Fort Benning, Georgia. In search of three Olympic quotas, Team USA will include the reigning Olympic champion Thrasher, now competing in Three-Position (3P) smallbore (not Air Rifle where she won Gold). She’ll be joined by her 2016 Olympic teammates Michael McPhail, and Lucas Kozeniesky. The full list of all Pan-American Games USA Rifle competitors is at the end of this story.
In men’s Three-Position Smallbore, two-time Olympian McPhail is slotted to compete alongside his U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) teammate Tim Sherry. Sherry will also compete in Air Rifle and in the Mixed Team Air Rifle competition with Weisz.
This will be the first Pan American Games for Thrasher, who recently graduated from West Virginia University. While at WVU, Thrasher won the 2016 NCAA smallbore and air rifle titles and helped lead the Mountaineers to two NCAA National Championships, while earning 12 All-America awards.
SFC Michael McPhail has switched from prone smallbore rifle to three-position smallbore.
Gunning for a third Olympic opportunity, McPhail had to re-invent himself after his discipline (Prone Rifle) was eliminated from the Olympic program after 2016. The USAMU soldier now shoots Three-Position Smallbore Rifle very well indeed — McPhail won the Spring Selection Match and earned a bronze medal at the 2018 World Championships.
2019 U.S. Pan American Games Rifle Team
Women’s Air Rifle
Mindy Miles (Weatherford, Texas)
Ali Weisz (Belgrade, Montana)
Women’s Three-Position Rifle
Sarah Beard (USAMU/Danville, Indiana)
Ginny Thrasher (Springfield, Virginia)
Men’s Air Rifle
Tim Sherry (USAMU/Highlands Ranch, Colorado)
Lucas Kozeniesky (Fairfax, Virginia)
Men’s Three-Position Rifle
Michael McPhail (USAMU/Darlington, Wisconsin)
Tim Sherry (USAMU/Colorado Springs, Colorado)
Mixed Team Air Rifle
Ali Weisz / Tim Sherry
Mindy Miles / Lucas Kozeniesky
Similar Posts:
- Ft. Benning Hosts Smallbore U.S. Olympic Team Trials in May
- SFC McPhail Aims for Olympic Gold in 50m Prone Rifle
- Olympics-Bound Ginny Thrasher Wins National Air Rifle Title
- USA Shooting National Championships at Fort Benning
- Shooter Profile — SPC Alison Weisz of Team USA and USAMU
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Tags: Ginny Thrasher, Michael McPhail, Pan American Games, Team USA
Why are the shooting sports still gender-segregated? I can understand having women’s and men’s basketball, but what’s the point of women and men’s rifle being separate?