After 10 days at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre, shooting came to an end at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
It was a Games of future stars winning in the present, and new national anthems ringing across the range, showing that the sport is truly alive and well.
Our first gold medallists of the entire Games were the Chinese pair of Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao, Olympic champions at the ripe ages of 17 and 19, in the 10m air rifle mixed team final. Huang’s calming poise and Sheng’s under-pressure delivery cemented them as podium favourites in the individual finals. While Huang would settle for silver behind new Olympic record holder Ban Hyo-jin of the Republic of Korea, Sheng became the men’s champion in style, setting a new Olympic record.
In fact, China would top the shooting medal table for a fifth time, dominating the men’s rifle and pistol events with gold medals in all of them. Xie Yu and Li Yuehong claimed 10m air pistol and 25m rapid fire pistol titles. While Li’s victory was dominant, Xie emerged victorious after a fantastic three-way battle with Italians Federico Nilo Maldini and Paolo Monna. Liu Yukun’s win in the 50m air rifle 3 positions final came down to managing the pressure better than those around him in those single shots.
Republic of Korea would win both women’s pistol finals, as Yang Ji-in broke the hearts of the home crowd to defeat France’s Camille Jedrzejewski in a shoot-off in the 25m pistol. The country also scored a 1-2 in the 10m air pistol, which was won by Oh Ye-jin in an Olympic record and backed up by Kim Ye-ji, who quickly became a sensation of her own, taking social media by storm thanks to her cool demeanour with the pistol in her hand. The only rifle winner not from Korea or China was Switzerland’s Chiara Leone, who set a new Olympic record in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions final.
While Korea’s three champions were between the ages of 16 and 21, there was room for some experience and with that came history for the United States’ Vincent Hancock. The 35-year-old won his fourth men’s skeet Olympic gold medal, achieving an unprecedented feat of four Olympic shooting golds in a single event.
Both trap finals were won emphatically by Nathan Hales and Adriana Ruano Oliva with new Olympic records. In the men’s events, Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas won Guatemala’s first shooting medal when he finished third, but Ruano would go one better just 24 hours later to claim her nation’s first-ever Olympic gold medal. Before Brol’s achievement, Guatemala had one Olympic medal in its history, by the end of the women’s trap, they had tripled that tally.
Francisca Crovetto Chadid won an incredibly tight women’s skeet final, which gave Chile its second-ever shooting medal 36 years on from the first, and its first Olympic gold in the sport. It was also the nation’s first Olympic title in 20 years. Just edged out in that final was Amber Rutter from Great Britain. She only gave birth to her son Tommy three months ago, yet was so quickly back on the range in a bid for success in Chateauroux. A silver medal will feel like a gold considering the journey she has been on.
Passionate is the best way to describe the celebrations from Zorana Arunovic and Damir Mikec, as the Serbian pair claimed gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team final and embraced in a rolling hug on the floor having defeated Turkiye’s Sevval Ilayda Tarhan and the man soon to be known as “Turkish Dad”, Yusuf Dikec. Equally, Diana Bacosi and Gabriele Rossetti won a great skeet mixed team final and passionately chanted the Italian national anthem on the podium. Manu Bhaker will leave France a hero for India too – claiming two bronze medals and coming close to a third. Once again, a young Asian athlete who will be expecting to excel again by the time of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
After the heroics of athletes, they were invited to ISSF House, the hub for the shooting community at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. There, we focused on the excellence of our sport around the globe, led by International Shooting Sport Federation President, Luciano Rossi.
“It was a big shock initially to realise that we would have to organise the competition in Chateauroux, which is very far from the other Olympic sports in Paris, but we respected the decision of the [Paris 2024] Organising Committee and we worked together with them, the IOC, and the French Shooting Federation to create a beautiful environment for our shooters to perform at their best.,” said Rossi.
“In addition, I took the decision to invest in creating ISSF House – a unique centre for hospitality during the Olympic Games which allowed federations, athletes, media and other stakeholders to get together and share a unique experience.
“In the end, we had 45 medallists out of a possible 47 passing through the House and were able to organise more than 100 pieces of video content to help promote our sport.
“I would like to thank all federations and athletes for their support during these Olympics as well as the generous contribution of our ISSF House sponsors, without whom our dream could not have been realised.”