The Olympic Games is all about bringing the best athletes from around the world in a celebration of sport and cultures under one roof, and it was no different this year in shooting at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
342 athletes from 82 National Olympic Committees and teams participated in Chateauroux, with 19 nations winning medals and nine of them having Olympic champions. From debuting nations to first medals and titles, it was a Games with history written all over it and showing the diversity across our sport.
Libya and Palestine competed in shooting sport at the Games for the first time. Representing the Palestinian people was Jorge Antonio Salhe, the son of Palestinian immigrants in a nation of many of them, Chile. He competed in the men’s skeet. Libya’s first shooting athlete was Mohammed Bin Dallah, who was part of the men’s 10m air pistol field, proudly donning the colours of the North African nation.
But we should reserve some love for the medallists too.
Guatemala’s total medal tally before Paris 2024 was a silver medal, won by Erick Barrondo in the men’s 20m race walk at the London 2012 Olympics. In the space of just over 24 hours, that tally had tripled.
Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas wrote history for the Latin American nation, becoming its first shooting sport Olympic medallist when he won bronze in the men’s trap. You could be forgiven for missing this achievement as the following day, Adriana Ruano Oliva won the women’s trap final. She was Guatemala’s first Olympic gold medallist, making her an instant legend back home too.
A medal drought had been occurring in Chile too. Before Francisca Crovetto Chadid’s women’s skeet gold medal, the South American country had gone without a place on the podium since the Beijing 2008 Olympics and 20 years since the Chilean national anthem had played at the Games. It was also Chile’s first gold medal in shooting.
It wasn’t the only National Olympic Committee to have a first in the sport. Chinese Taipei made its way onto the medal table in Paris thanks to Lee Meng-yuan in the men’s skeet. No Taiwanese athlete has ever won an Olympic shooting medal. Even better for Lee, he shared the podium with his hero, now four-time Olympic champion Vincent Hancock. In the mixed 10m air pistol team final, Turkiye claimed its first-ever shooting Olympic medal too, won by Sevval Ilayda Tarhan and the now infamous and viral, Yusuf Dikec.
Kazakhstan ended a long shooting medal drought thanks to the duo of Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev who won bronze in the mixed 10m air rifle team event. Two silver medals for Sergey Belyayev at the Atlanta 1996 Games, the nation’s first since independence from the Soviet Union, were previously their only medals in the sport.
After a shooting medal drought going back to London 2012, India won three bronze medals, two won by rising star Manu Bhaker. It was the nation’s most successful Games in the sport by number of podiums, but their athletes will be looking to match the achievement of Abhinav Bindra, the nation’s only shooting gold medallist.
Finally, five nations continued their impressive medal streaks in Paris, dating back to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Ukraine and the Republic of Korea have made it onto the medal table every Games since doing so in Australia, but three others have gone better.
Italy’s streak started at Barcelona in 1992 while China and the United States have made it onto shooting podiums since 1984 – 40 years of excellence from the two sporting powerhouses.
With more nations have medal firsts in shooting in Chateauroux, it's a sign that emerging nations are not just here to make up the numbers, but to challenge the world's greatest and create history back home.