Thrasher is the third woman for the United States to win gold in the women’s 10-meter air rifle – which has been a part of the Olympic Games since 1984.
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WVU student Ginny Thrasher celebrates after winning the gold medal in the women’s 10-meter air rifle event Saturday.
Ranked 23rd in the world, she shocked the rather insular shooting world by winning the women’s 10-meter air rifle competition.
But USA Shooting, the governing body for the U.S. Olympic shooting team, was not about to let Morgan’s utterly absurd diminishment of Thrasher’s accomplishment go unanswered. Her best record on worldwide stage before the Rio Olympics is the fourth place at the ISSF World Cup in Munich earlier this year.
“They’re blowing up my phone, but I have turned my phone off”, she said, “and I’m right now only communicating with those who can help me refocus for my next match”. “For me to start out Rio 2016 with a gold medal for the United States of America makes me incredibly proud”.
With her determination and talent, Thrasher managed to stay on top as her rivals fell off.
Thrasher first fired a gun five years ago during a hunting trip with her family. Thrasher moved ahead after the seventh and eighth shot.
Thrasher won the US Olympic Trials, less than a month later, earning a spot in Rio.
She opened the elimination finals – a new format in this year’s Olympics – with a flawless 10.9 and was in the lead after Scherer became the first shooter knocked out.
Thrasher, a Springfield, Va., native, learned to shoot with her grandfather. “. I know her really well, and I know how tough an athlete she is, and I know her mental game”.
“I think when I took the lead in the final I kind of realised that this is a possibility”. After the breathtaking moment, the young athlete pulled it off against two of the world’s best shooters: Du Li and Siling Yi. The win marked the first medal awarded at these Rio Games and also the first big upset. Abbott, who had been leading, was also surpassed at the last minute by Emma Johansson of Sweden who took the silver and Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy who earned the bronze.
Just a day after Team USA’s Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky added more Olympic gold to their respective collections, more talented swimmers from across the globe will hit the pool once again at the 2016 Rio Summer Games to compete for hardware in four event finals.
“I am honestly just happy to be here”.
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West Virginia University Sophomore and rifle star, Virginia Thrasher, is more American than you and I will ever be.
