Armed and Fabulous

Imagine you’ve just returned from the Beijing Olympics having won your fourth Olympic medal in shooting.  What’s the worst thing you can imagine happening?  How about having the gun you’ve used since you began competing stolen?

That’s exactly what happened to U.S. Shooting superstar, Kim Rhode.  “It’s like a shoe,” Rhode said. “If something doesn’t fit you exactly right, you’re definitely going to know it…The emotions that hit you when it’s gone are incredible. Like, ‘I have to start completely over again.’”  And start over, she did.

With the anonymous donation of a new Perazzi 2000S to replace her Perazzi MX-12, Rhode headed to London and made it clear she’s feeling pretty comfortable with her new gun.  Setting an Olympic record in the skeet qualifying round by hitting 74 out of 75 targets, she then followed by tying her own record in the final round by hitting all 25 targets.  Winning gold (obviously), she also became the first U.S. Olympian to win a medal in five consecutive Olympics.

(Note to all those concerned: a few weeks after having her gun stolen, it was found in the home of a convict on parole. However, after using the new Perazzi, she decided it was time to retire “Old Faithful.”)

Field Sports in the Olympics

The opening ceremony begins in a few hours.  London’s Heathrow Airport has reported an increase of 47,000 daily passengers as spectators and athletes pour in from all over the world.  In short, the 2012 Olympic Games are drawing near.

While we will certainly be watching as many of the events as we can, you can bet we’ll be glued to the TV during those sports closest to our hearts: shooting, archery, and equestrian.  While we know that many of you are intimately familiar with these three sports, we thought it might be helpful to offer a quick overview of their structure for the rest of our readers.

Shooting:

The “shooting” heading actually encompasses 10 separate events, including a range of distances, shooting positions, and targets.  In pistol and rifle events, competitors either shoot a specified number of shots at a stationary target within a certain time limit, or they may shoot at targets that briefly face the competitor and then turn away (example: Women’s 25m pistol).