Shooting: Hit Them With Your Best Shot

[SnideAsides]

Relax, the pigeons are made of clay.

[cocobeans]

Virginia Thrasher from WVU, nineteen years old and a rock star!  Good luck in the 10M air rifle comp...

Spoiler

First Gold medal of the games for USA!!

[MyAimIsTrue]

Sorry but I had to chuckle at the announcers calling the competitors "athletes."  Yes, they're very skilled at something but is shooting (which I have issues with in theory but I'm not going there in the Olympics) really an athletic endeavor?

[MaryMitch]

42 minutes ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

Sorry but I had to chuckle at the announcers calling the competitors "athletes."  Yes, they're very skilled at something but is shooting (which I have issues with in theory but I'm not going there in the Olympics) really an athletic endeavor?

Well, yeah. It requires an ability to control your muscles, heartbeat, breathing - your body.

[legaleagle53]

2 minutes ago, MaryMitch said:

Well, yeah. It requires an ability to control your muscles, heartbeat, breathing - your body.

Which is what makes the Biathlon that much harder.   You have to do all that AFTER you've just completed a 4k cross-country ski run -- and you have to do it five times in a row without stopping.

[emma675]

I consider everyone who is competing in the Olympics an athlete. Yes, some of them have bigger muscles and are stronger than others, but they are all athletes who have trained hard to get where they are.

[walnutqueen]

8 hours ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

Sorry but I had to chuckle at the announcers calling the competitors "athletes."  Yes, they're very skilled at something but is shooting (which I have issues with in theory but I'm not going there in the Olympics) really an athletic endeavor?

Sorry, but YES.

[photo fox]

I think arguments can be made for many Olympic events not being "sports" and their participants not "athletes".

I mean, why is a figure skater an "athlete", while a ballerina is a "dancer"? In the equestrian events, who is the "athlete"? The rider or the horse?

It's all pretty arbitrary, so I think it's a slippery slope if you start making comparisons. 

[ExplainItAgain]

I'm watching trap shooting (never seen this event before). Women's bronze match. I can't tell if they hit or miss! Only on slow motion can I see if they hit it or not.

USA wins bronze!

[emma675]

I saw the US shooter win bronze and those ladies must have laser eyesight or something--I literally could not see the targets until they disappeared in a puff of pink smoke. And they seem to be shot off in random places all over the range. It was crazy.

[Rick Kitchen]

"Virginia Thrasher" sounds like a kind of bird.  :)

[Good Queen Jane]

Ginny Thrasher is so cute! The NRA better sign her up. I loved that the first thing she said in her interview was "do you want to see my gold medal?" I bet she wears it to her first day of classes at UWV.

[Occasional Hope]

I thought shooting would be boring, but I found myself glued to the men's trap.

The bronze medal winner (Ed Ling from the UK) is a farmer who is flying straight home to get back to his cows. I love that.

[j5cochran]

13 hours ago, Good Queen Jane said:

Ginny Thrasher is so cute! The NRA better sign her up. I loved that the first thing she said in her interview was "do you want to see my gold medal?" I bet she wears it to her first day of classes at UWV.

It's West Virginia University or WVU!  (Don't mind me, I've been doing this all over the interwebs for the last couple of days, including a email to NBC/Bob Costas.)  I'm also a proud Mountaineer, and our university now has two golds for this Olympics, with the gold medal for Nicco Campriani (Italy) in men's 10m air rifle.

[Good Queen Jane]

My apologies, j5cochran. Congratulations to the Mountaineers, who must have a great shooting team.

[j5cochran]

No problem, your majesty!  The WVU rifle team is downright frightening.  There have been 36 NCAA championships in shooting since the first was awarded in 1980.  The Mountaineers have won 18.  I can't think of another university that is that dominant in any sport! We are quite proud.

[Good Queen Jane]

Doesn't your mascot carry a gun? It is amazing to have such an NCAA record.

[j5cochran]

1 minute ago, Good Queen Jane said:

Doesn't your mascot carry a gun? It is amazing to have such an NCAA record.

The Mountaineer carries a black powder rifle (and all of the associated paraphernalia). He (or she -- there have been two women Mountaineers) fire the rifle after football scores and at the end of periods of other sports. Apparently there is quite the negotiation for permission at other teams' stadiums and arenas. 

And, according to West Virginia state law, the only persons allowed to carry firearms on school grounds, from grade school through college, are law enforcement personnel and the Mountaineer!

[ZootSuitWyatt]

12 hours ago, j5cochran said:

No problem, your majesty!  The WVU rifle team is downright frightening.  There have been 36 NCAA championships in shooting since the first was awarded in 1980.  The Mountaineers have won 18.  I can't think of another university that is that dominant in any sport! We are quite proud.

UNC women's soccer have won 21 out of 34, but still very impressive.

[ExplainItAgain]

8 hours ago, ZootSuitWyatt said:

UNC women's soccer have won 21 out of 34, but still very impressive.

Alma mater love! <3

[walnutqueen]

USA's Kim Rhode just made history by winning a medal (Bronze - Skeet) for her SIXTH consecutive Olympics!  She's the first female and the first Summer Olympian to do so.

She won gold in the 1996 Atlanta Games in double trap at the age of 17, then followed up with bronze in Sydney, gold in Athens, silver in Beijing, and then gold in London.

Amaaazing.

[j5cochran]

Take that, Michael Phelps!

[ElDosEquis]

Shooters and equestrians are probably the two sports where age is a good thing.

Shooting skeet is fun.

It's WAY easier with an aa-12 shotgun, really!