Shooter Ginny Thrasher won the USA’s first gold medal of the Rio Olympics, pulling off an upset in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event Saturday morning.
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Thrasher held on to defeat two very successful Olympic rifle shooters in Li and Yi Siling.
It’s been remarkable year of success for Thrasher, who won the NCAA’s air rifle title as a freshman in March as a member of WVU’s rifle team.
Though not expected to be a medal contender, Thrasher finished a spot behind fellow American Sarah Scherer at sixth in qualifying to make the eight-person final. Yet, it was the teenager who emerged victorious in a tale of David vs Goliath that made Virginia Thrasher a top worldwide trending topic on Twitter for four hours! The 19-year-old was a figure skater growing up but switched sports after a family hunting trip in which she killed a deer with her first shot.
Perhaps the West Virginia University sophomore, who started shooting when her grandfather took her hunting and continued because she loved the “adrenaline”, just enjoys a pressure-cooker environment. Shortly thereafter, her score of 10.4 was enough to surpass Li’s final shot of 10.1.
But by Thrasher’s last shot of 10.4, it was clear that not even perfection by Du would rob the American of the gold.
“This is very special for me”, Ginny said after her big win (via USA Today). “But I quickly pushed that thought away and focused on breathing, just taking one shot at a time”.
Afterwards, she noted that she had not attended the Olympics’ opening ceremony Friday night and had instead gone to bed early for her Olympic debut.
“I was just trying to shoot the best I could for my first Olympics experience coming without any medal”.
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“I couldn’t stop myself from looking at the standings time and again”, she added.
