Most of you, like me, are just about at saturation with the Summer Olympics.  Yeah, they’re still thrilling, but there’s only so much you can watch… especially if you’re watching on network TV and listening to the banal observations of the “experts” and announcers.  The only way I can bear it, sometimes, is just to remember the announcer in Christopher Guest’s mock-umentary,  ”Best in Show“.  It reminds me to see the humor above the annoyance, and I get by… but barely.

But what I’m not getting enough of in the televised coverage… actually, what I’m not getting ANY of on network TV… is the shooting sports.  Archery, pistol, rifle, and shotgun events have been part of the games for ages, but in recent years televised coverage has dropped to nil.  Some folks believe there’s an anti-gun/anti-shooting sports reason for this lack of television exposure.  I’m not sure I completely buy that.  The more logical argument put forth by the networks is that these aren’t really crowd-pleasers and they don’t generate enough attention to merit coverage… which amounts to the fact that if they don’t generate enough advertising they don’t rate air-time.  I guess that’s valid enough, since TV is all business.  But it still grates on me. 

Another reason you won’t see a lot of the shooting sports on US network TV is that the US has generally been fairly tepid in the Olympic shooting sports.  Our shooters put up a great effort with an occasional stellar performance, especially in the shotgun sports, but we’re often outgunned by other marksmen (and women)…particularly the northern european countries.  That makes it tough for some of the flag-waving crowd to get behind, but dammit, these shooters are all the BEST IN THE WORLD!  That’s how they got to be at the Olympics in the first place!  They ALL deserve recognition and coverage.  I believe that’s sort of the point of the Games.

Anyway, since you won’t hear a lot about this in the mainstream, I just thought I’d let ya’ll know that so far the U.S. shooters have taken three medals.  There are still some events left, including a couple where our team should make a good showing, but for now we have the following:

Women’s Skeet – Kim Rhode won the silver following a three-way tie and shoot-off for the gold. 

If I remember correctly, this is Kim’s third or fourth Olympic medal, going back to the 1996 games where she won gold as a 17 year-old competitor in Women’s Double-Trap!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women’s Trap – newcomer Corey Codgell took the bronze medal. 

As the press-releases tell, Corey wasn’t even expected to make the team this year, much less medal in the events.  As a brand-new face at the Olympic Shooting Camp, she was just there to learn more and train fo the 2012 games in London. 

Following a pretty awesome performance in the qualifications, and in other key shoots, she suddenly found a spot on the team and with this bronze medal win, made her own mark in the annals of Olympic history.

 

 

Men’s Double Trap - Glenn Eller took the gold, and set a new world record in the process… 190 out of 200 targets! 

This is Eller’s third Olympics, and his first time on the Podium.  As of right now, he shows promise to be there again in London, four years from now. 

 

 

 

 

 

You can learn a lot more about the US Shooting Team by going to the USA Shooting website.  Read up on the program, and the participants, then find out what you can do to help this great organization continue to bring us even more world-champions. 

There’s a lot of great stuff going on in Archery too, and as that competition begins to gel, I’ll bring you a salute to some of America’s (and the World’s) best archers! 

In the meantime, I just want to recognize the intense drive, determination, and dedication these shooters and archers have demonstrated in order to get where they are.  This isn’t the kind of thing you just learn to do overnight. 

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