Spotlight on Youth | Victoria is back

“Going into the semifinal I was definitely a lot more nervous than I was going into the medal match, just because it was my first,” Victoria Burch said after the award ceremony. But "in the gold medal match I was just really focused and relaxed because either way I was gonna come out with a medal.”

This triumph was not the first surprise of the competition for Victoria. More like the second, the first being a big family thing. “My parents did come with me,” she explained. “They actually surprised me at the airport and we're going to tour [in Germany] a little bit afterwards.” Two (surprises) is better than one.

What's next? “I'm not sure,” she said. “But my coach did mention that I was gonna be selected to go to some more [matches]. I'll just have to wait and see.”

In the meanwhile, she can look back at how it all began. “I started shooting when I was 12,” she said. “My dad actually runs the shooting range in Kerrville, Texas. So he started that and just a couple of years afterwards I started a 4-H shooting program. And then it just evolved from there.”

While keeping up the shooting, Victoria actually joined Schreiner University for a Business Management degree. She's not done yet. “I'm not sure if I'm gonna go back to Schreiner,” she said. “But I'll go somewhere. I only have a year or so of school left.”

But studying kept her far from the range. “I just wasn't practicing as much as I needed to,” she said. “Shooting is 90% mental and if you're not working on how your brain works while shooting, then you're really doing yourself a disfavor.” So she changed that. “In the last year or two I really started to evolve in my shooting and get better. My mental process while I'm on the range shooting or at a game has changed a lot.” Here are the results.