Daily Bulletin » Olympic Shooting

USA Shooting Celebrates 30 Years of Excellence in Competition

Editor — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 05:33:36 +0000

This month USA Shooting celebrates 30 years as the American Governing Body for shooting sports within the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. USA Shooting will commemorate its anniversary throughout 2025 with special events, social media giveaways, and initiatives designed to further expand participation in competitive shooting sports. To learn more about USA Shooting’s 30th Anniversary programs, visit USAShooting.org and follow @USAShooting on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

“These three decades represent not just organizational longevity, but a remarkable journey of athletic excellence… and competitive innovation,” said Kelly Reisdorf, CEO of USA Shooting. Since its founding in 1995, USA Shooting has guided American marksmen and markswomen to 36 Olympic and Paralympic medals, developing world-class talent across all shooting disciplines.

“The trajectory of American competitive shooting has been defined by both winning at the highest levels and developing tomorrow’s champions,” said Tim Rupli, Chairman of USA Shooting. “We’ve cultivated American talent while championing the values of precision, discipline, and patriotic excellence[.]”

A Legacy of Champions
For three decades USA Shooting has produced shooting sports legends, including Kimberly Rhode, a 6-time Olympic medalist, and Vincent Hancock, the first shooter to win four gold medals in the same event. Most recently, USA Shooting athletes excelled at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, securing six medals — including gold for Hancock in Men’s Skeet, silver medals for Sagen Maddalena in Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, Conner Prince in Men’s Skeet, Austen Smith and Hancock in Mixed Skeet Team.

The legacy extends to stellar coaches like Lloyd Woodhouse, whose 23-year leadership of the U.S. shotgun team produced 10 Olympic medals across four Games and earned him recognition as the 2003 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Coach of the Year.

From Amateur Act to Global Force
USA Shooting traces back to the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, which established the National Rifle Association of America as the governing body for shooting sports. The mid-1980s saw the establishment of the U.S. Olympic Shooting Center and Olympic Shooting Park in Colorado Springs, creating a permanent home for the U.S. Shooting Team.

Looking Ahead: The 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles
As the organization celebrates its past, USA Shooting remains focused on the future — particularly the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will mark the first Summer Olympics on American soil in over three decades. “Having the summer Games return to the United States presents an unprecedented opportunity to showcase our sport and athletes to a home audience,” Reisdorf added. “We’re positioning USA Shooting for its most successful Olympic cycle in our history.”

Become a Winning Marksman with Mental Management System

Editor — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 10:50:07 +0000

F-Class ace Erik Cortina has interviewed noted author and Olympic Gold Medal-winning shooter Lanny Bassham. For his popular video channel, Cortina asked Lanny about his book With Winning in Mind. The two talented shooters also broadly discussed the “mental game” in the shooting sports and Lanny’s program for visualization of a winning performance. Lanny explains that after you have mastered your rifle skills, and learned to read the wind, it is important to adopt a winning mentality and to visualize success. Lanny should know. He won a shooting Gold Medal in the Olympics along with 22 world individual and team titles.

Watch Full Video Interview
Here is the wide-ranging and fascinating hour-long Lanny Bassham interview hosted by Erik Cortina. If you are looking to enhance your motivation, discipline, and “mental focus” when competing, this video is worth watching:

With Winning in Mind — About the Book

With Winning in Mind (3rd. Edition)
by Lanny Bassham, $9.99 (Kindle), $16.94 (Softcover)
Visualization is a process of mental preparation that is done before you get to the range. Many of the greatest shooting champions have used this technique to get ready for big matches, and to optimize their performance during record fire. If you want to enhance your “mental game” through pre-match visualization, we strongly recommend Lanny Bassham’s book, With Winning in Mind.

As a competitive smallbore 3P shooter, Bassham developed a mental management system. Using this system, Lanny Bassham won 22 world individual and team titles, set four world records, and captured an Olympic Gold Medal in Montreal in 1976. His techniques have been embraced by professional and Olympic athletes in many sports. With Winning in Mind covers a complete system of “mental management” techniques used by Olympians and elite champions.

Putting principles into practice — Anette Wachter

Our friend Anette Wachter, aka “30CalGal”, did a series of videos for the NRAWomen.com site. In one episode, Anette talks about the “mental game” in competition. Specifically she explains how to “visualize success”:

I have found that a lot of my success in competition has come through what I call a ‘mental rehearsal’. I actually visualize every stage of the match and I visualize the success of the match and winning the match.

I actually visualize that round going downrange into the target, and the target coming up with a dead-center ‘X’. I visualize this over and over. If you visualize success you will achieve success.

Cultivate a Winning Mindset — Mental Management Methods

Editor — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 12:00:50 +0000

F-Class ace Erik Cortina recently interviewed noted author and Olympic Gold Medal-winning shooter Lanny Bassham. For his popular video channel, Erik asked Lanny about his book With Winning in Mind. The two talented shooters also broadly discussed the “mental game” in the shooting sports and Lanny’s program for visualization of a winning performance. Lanny explains that after you have mastered your rifle skills, and learned to read the wind, it is important to adopt a winning mentality and to visualize success. Lanny should know. He won a shooting Gold Medal in the Olympics along with 22 world individual and team titles.

With Winning in Mind — About the Book

With Winning in Mind (3d. Edition)
by Lanny Bassham, $9.99 (Kindle), $16.95 (Softcover)

Visualization is a process of mental preparation that is done before you get to the range. Many of the greatest shooting champions have used this technique to get ready for big matches, and to optimize their performance during record fire. If you want to enhance your “mental game” through pre-match visualization, we strongly recommend Lanny Bassham’s book, With Winning in Mind.

As a competitive smallbore 3P shooter, Bassham developed a mental management system. Using this system, Lanny Bassham won 22 world individual and team titles, set four world records, and captured an Olympic Gold Medal in Montreal in 1976. His techniques have been embraced by professional and Olympic athletes in many sports. With Winning in Mind covers a complete system of “mental management” techniques used by Olympians and elite champions.

Putting principles into practice — Anette Wachter

Learn to Win with Lanny Bassham’s Mental Management System

Editor — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 15:47:20 +0000

With Winning in Mind — About the Book

With Winning in Mind (3d. Edition)
by Lanny Bassham, $9.99 (Kindle), $16.95 (Softcover)

Visualization is a process of mental preparation that is done before you get to the range. Many of the greatest shooting champions have used this technique to get ready for big matches, and to optimize their performance during record fire. If you want to enhance your “mental game” through pre-match visualization, we strongly recommend Lanny Bassham’s book, With Winning in Mind.

As a competitive smallbore 3P shooter, Bassham developed a mental management system. Using this system, Lanny Bassham won 22 world individual and team titles, set four world records, and captured an Olympic Gold Medal in Montreal in 1976. His techniques have been embraced by professional and Olympic athletes in many sports. With Winning in Mind covers a complete system of “mental management” techniques used by Olympians and elite champions.

Putting principles into practice — Anette Wachter

USA Shooting National Championships at Fort Benning

Editor — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 15:19:48 +0000

More than 200 shooters from around the country will make their annual pilgrimage to the home of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit this weekend as the week-long USA Shooting National Championships for Rifle and Pistol kick off Sunday in Fort Benning, Georgia. The National Championships start Sunday, June 10 and run through June 16. This event is free and open to the public.

Click HERE for USA Shooting National Championships Schedule of Events PDF »

This year’s National Championship will also be the first Nationals where the new ISSF shooting format will be in place, with men and women taking the same number of record shots in competition.

National titles and slots on the National/National Junior/National Paralympic Teams will be up for grabs as athletes compete in individual Olympic and Paralympic events in Rifle and Pistol disciplines, as well as Men’s and Women’s 50m Prone Rifle, Men’s 25m Center Fire and Standard Pistol and Men’s 50m Free Pistol. This match will also serve as the selection match for the 2018 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships to be held August 31 – September 15 in Changwon, South Korea. Shooters who’ve already earned slots on the World Championship Team will be looking to Nationals as as a tune-up prior for the Worlds.

Among the notable Rifle athletes who will be competing in Fort Benning are three-time Olympic medalist Matt Emmons, 2016 Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher, and two-time Olympian Michael McPhail of the USAMU. Emmons and Thrasher posted the top finishes for American Rifle athletes this year on the ISSF circuit. Emmons just missed the podium at the April 2018 World Cup in Changwon, finishing fourth in Men’s Three-Position Rifle. Thrasher finished fifth in Women’s Air Rifle at the World Cup in Fort Benning just three weeks ago.

Paralympic Competition Draws Shooters from Many Nations

In addition to the National Championships, this event is also a World Shooting Para Sport-sanctioned (WSPS, formerly IPC) match so Paralympic athletes from the U.S., Ireland, Canada, Ukraine and Columbia will also compete in this match across the Paralympic Rifle and Pistol events.

Archive photos courtesy NRA Competitive Shooting.

Four Marksmen To Be Inducted into USA Shooting Hall of Fame

Editor — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 14:55:13 +0000

Hall of Fame Class of 2017 — Ed Etzel (top left, WVU photo); David Kimes (top right, USAMU photo); Don Haldeman (bottom left, NRA photo); Martin Gunnarsson (bottom right, USAMU photo).

USA Shooting Hall of Fame Inductions
Four outstanding American marksmen will be inducted into the U.S. International Shooting Hall of Fame on August 26th in Colorado Springs, CO. Ed Etzel, David Kimes, Martin Gunnarsson and Don Haldeman will be the largest group of inductees since the first distinguished class in 1991. Each of these four shooters served in the U.S. Army and shot with the USAMU. The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will coincide with the USA Shooting alumni reunion and Biennial Coach Conference.

ED ETZEL
Etzel won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles in the Men’s English Match Rifle event and was a gold medalist in the 1978 World Championships and 1979 Pan American Games. He was 11-time National Champion and set numerous national rifle records as a member of the U.S. Shooting Team. Later, Etzel coached the WVU Rifle team from 1976-89, with a 101-3 career coaching record. He coached over 30 WVU All-Americans and guided his teams to four NCAA National Championships during the 1980s. He was an active duty officer in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps for nearly three years during the Vietnam War and subsequently for 10 years in the U.S. Army Reserves.

DAVID KIMES
Kimes earned 14 World Championship medals (team & individual) during his career. A five-time World Team member from 1966 to 1986, Kimes is the only U.S. shooter to win an individual World Championship (1974) while setting a World Record and then repeating the same feat in the next World Championships (1978). He was selected as a 1980 Olympian but was unable to compete due to the U.S. boycott of the Games in the USSR. Reflecting on his induction, Kimes quoted Thoreau: “Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.” He reflected back on his last shot of the 1974 World Championships in Switzerland, the cheering of over a thousand Swiss fans as he connected on his final shot for a perfect string of 100, resulting in a world record and title of world champion.

MARTIN GUNNARSSON
Gunnarsson won the bronze medal at the 1968 Olympic Games in the 300m Three-Position Rifle event and was a Pan American and World Championships medalist during his distinguished career. His Pan American medals were both gold and were won in team events at the 1959 and 1963 Pan Am Games 00 in the English match and free rifle event, respectively. At the 1966 World Championships, he also won a gold medal in the free rifle team event. In addition, both free rifle team performances (in 1963 and 1966) earned him a share of the world record.

DON HALDEMAN
A two-time Olympian who competed in the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games, Haldeman earned an Olympic gold medal in 1976 in Men’s Trap. Haldeman was a member of the gold-medal winning 1973-74 U.S. World Championship Team. He was also a member of the 1975 U.S. Pan American Games Team, winning individual silver along with a team gold medal. He remains the last U.S. team member to earn Olympic gold in Men’s Trap.

About the USA Shooting Hall of Fame
The U.S. International Shooting Hall of Fame was established in 1991 by the NRA International Competitions Committee. Selection is focused on marksmen who excelled in international competition over an extended period of time, and who have been retired from active international shooting at least five years. Living USA Shooting Hall of Fame members and USA Shooting Board of Directors nominate candidates and then join with USA Shooting alumni in voting on the final nominees.

Rio’s Remarkable Olympic Shooting Center

Editor — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 14:20:39 +0000

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Marksmanship will be an important part of the Rio Olympics. Nearly 400 top shooters from around the world will compete in rifle, pistol, and shotgun events. The shooting competitions will take place in a large, modern sports complex originally created for the 2007 Pan-American Games at a cost of $53.5 million. This complex, located within the Deodoro Olympic Park in Rio, offers roughly 30,000 square meters of improved areas on the 125,000 square meter site. Brazil’s Olympic Shooting Center (also known as the National Shooting Center) is an impressive facility. In size, scale, cost, and capabilities, Rio’s Shooting Center is without rival in the Southern Hemisphere.

Video Showcases Brazil’s Modern Olympic Shooting Center:

Visit RIO 2016 Olympics Shooting Webpage

ISSF World Cup Underway at Shooting Center Now
If you want to learn more about the Olympic Shooting Center in Rio, there is an good article on the Shooting Sports USA website. This covers the history of Brazil’s Olympic shooting teams, and explains what competitors can expect this summer. Right now the Olympic Shooting Center is being used for the ISSF World Cup.

2016 Olympic Dress Rehearsal
“The 2016 Olympic Games this August will be one of the largest sporting events ever held. There will be another contest this year in the wonderful city of Rio de Janeiro that will function as a ‘dress rehearsal’ for the big show. On April 14-25, the Olympic Shooting Center will host the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup. During the 11-day competition, 700 athletes from dozens of countries will showcase their skills at the biggest shooting sport event in Brazil before the Olympics.” — Read more at Shooting Sports USA

Shooting Center Photos from video by BCMF Arquitetos.

Olympic Shooting Sports Schedules — Mark Your Calendars

Editor — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:21:38 +0000

Forum member George (aka gcarbrera) let us know that complete Shooting Sports schedules for the 2012 London Olympic Games can now be viewed online. Olympic shooting events start on July 28, 2012 with Women’s 10m Air Rifle and Men’s 10m Air Pistol. The final rifle event, Men’s 50m 3-Position Finals, will be held August 6, 2012.

London 2012 Olympics Website
LINK: Complete Olympics Shooting Schedule with links.

NBC Broadcast Schedule for Shooting Sports
LINK: Shooting Sports Event Schedule on NBC TV

Good Article on Standing Position

Editor — Sun, 18 May 2008 16:57:54 +0000

The May 2008 issue of On The Mark, the CMP’s newsletter for junior shooters, has a feature by Gary Anderson on building the proper standing position. Though focused primarily on juniors, all 3P High Power, Service Rifle, and Silhouette shooters can benefit from this article.

CLICK HERE to Download Newsletter as .pdf file

Tips on Hand Position
Here is sample of Gary’s advice: “It is critical not to force the rifle up or down to get the sights pointing at the target. The correct way to do this is to select a left hand-wrist position that fills the support gap between the left hip and the rifle fore-end. A good mid-range starting position is to keep the wrist straight and either set the rifle on top of a closed fit or support the rifle between the thumb and the first knuckle.

Either of these options will work well for most shooters. However, shooters with proportionately longer arms and shorter torsos will have rifle sights pointing high with either of these hand positions. By breaking the wrist and resting the rifle in the flat of the hand or by keeping the wrist straight and dropping the rifle down into the fork of the hand they should be able to comfortably bring the sights down to the target.

Conversely, shooters with proportionately shorter arms and longer torsos need a wrist-hand position that adds more length to the support column. They can achieve this by resting the rifle between the spit fingers and thumb, up on the second knuckles or, highest of all, on the thumb and fingertips.”

In his article, Anderson also explains how to correct the most common mistakes in the standing position:

“1. Incorrect body turn—too little or too much body turn makes it impossible to have a straight column of support under the rifle and upper body and difficult to balance[.]
2. Left elbow not under rifle—incorrect elbow positioning misaligns the column of support.
3. Left hip not under rifle—incorrect hip position misaligns the support column and makes good balance more difficult.
4. Butt too low in shoulder—when the head is tipped down too far to see through the sights comfortably, the butt must be raised in the shoulder and a higher left hand-wrist position must be selected.
5. Left arm not relaxed down onto side or hip—this means the rifle is being supported with muscles instead of bones—relax the arm down onto the side or hip and, if necessary, select a higher hand position.”

The May Issue of On The Mark contains many other useful articles, including a feature on Aerobic Fitness by 2003 Smallbore (3P) National Champion Amber Darland.