Shooting is a sport that requires accuracy and speed when handling firearms or airguns. In the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, competitions will take place at Shooting National Centre located in Deodoro region from 6 to 14 August, 2016.
There are 15 events in Shooting competitions in three different disciplines: Pistol, Rifle and Shotgun. Trap, Skeet, 10m Air Pistol, 10m Air Rifle and 50m Rifle Three Positions are conducted as men's and women's event. 25m Pistol Women, 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men, Double Trap Men, 50m Rifle Prone Men and 50m Pistol Men events complete the Olympic program for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Men’s events | Women’s events |
10m Air Pistol | 10m Air Pistol |
10m Air Rifle | 10m Air Rifle |
50m Rifle 3 Positions | 50m Rifle 3 Positions |
Trap | 25m pistol |
Skeet | Trap |
Double Trap | Skeet |
25m Rapid Fire Pistol | |
50m Rifle Prone | |
50m pistol |
Rewinding
Shooting Sport has been practised since centuries. The first recognized club was the St Sebastianus Shooting Club in Cologne, Germany, whose origins date back to 1463.
During the 19th century, Shooting clubs developed into national Shooting federations: the Société Suisse des Carabiniers was founded in 1824 in Switzerland; Queen Victoria inaugurated the British National Rifle Association in 1859. Duke Ernst II of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha founded the Deutscher Schützenbund in 1861, and military leaders established the National Rifle Association of America (USA) in 1871. In 1907, it was formally establish the L’Union Internationale des Fédérations et Associations nationals de Tir, in a meeting that would be remembered as the first International Shooting Sport Federation General Assembly.
Pierre de Coubertin, modern Olympic Games founder, was a French pistol champion. That is probably the reason why three Shooting events made part of the first Olympic Games in 1896.
Women competed for the first time in shooting alongside the men at the Mexico City 1968 Games. Separate women’s events were added to the schedule in Los Angeles in 1984.
Performances to remember
One of the first Olympic medallists ever, the Danish shooter Alexander Viggo Jensen Rowing, has won three medals (1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze) at the very first edition of the modern Games, in Athens, in 1896. He was competing in four different sports: Rifle Shooting, Weightlifting, Athletic and Gymnastic.
Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn was 60 years old when he won his first gold medal at the London 1908 Games. Swahn won two golds and a bronze in 1908 and four years later, at the Stockholm 1912 Games, he won another gold and bronze. Swahn was still competing at the age of 72 at the Antwerp 1920 Games, where he collected a silver medal. He owns the record of the oldest Olympic competitor and medallist.
1938 was the year that Károly Takács suffered an accident and lost his right hand, after taking the gold home in the world championship. Ten years after that, he won the gold medal in the London 1948 and Helsinki 1952 Olympic Games, shooting with his left.
The name that stands for 2000’s shooting sport hero is Ralf Schumann from Germany. 25m Rapid Fire Pistol champion, he has already made a name for himself by winning three olympic gold medals in the Rapid Fire Pistol event in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Athens 2004. Despite ongoing changes in the shooting sport, which influences training and performances, he is still the ambitious enthusiast of today’s and tomorrows shooting sport.
Equipments and techniques
Since its debut in the 1896 Olympic Games, Shooting has grown from three to15 Olympic events, today. This leap is attributed, in part, to the advances in equipment technology, leading to constant changes on the competitions, to the inclusion of new events for women.
An impressive technique is used by marksmen to keep as steady as possible. In order to give a accurate shot, they use a relaxation technique to drop the heartbeat half its normal rate and fire between heartbeats.
In some Rifle & Pistol events, scoring in the 10 rings is as difficult as hitting a quarter dollar coin at 50 meters of distance. And top athletes do that 40 or 60 consecutive times (depeding on the event), without missing, in order to make it to the final.
In Shotgun events, athletes are shooting at a clay target of a diameter of 11 centimeters, flying at a speed close to 100 km/h, with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with 24 grams of pellets.
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