The 2016 Summer Olympic Games are on, and the medals are flowing. While the US has consistently medaled in shooting sports, the past 20 years have been dominated by the Chinese, Russian, and South Korean teams.
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“It was just a big rush of adrenaline”, said Thrasher.
The 19-year-old took a jab at Russia’s Yulia Efimova, who was caught in a doping scandal, saying she won fair and square.
As a freshman at West Virginia this past year, she won both NCAA air rifle titles as she led her school to a national title in the sport.
Thrasher’s score of 208 set a record for a final round in an Olympics.
Thrasher, the youngest of the 15 members of the USA rifle team, bested a field of 50 competitors, comfortably winning the final duel with China’s Du Li, who won gold medals at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.
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.
Thrasher entered the final with a 0.7-point lead and opened with a solid 10.5, which Li matched. She also competed in the 2012 London Games and pulled off a clutch shot in the Rio final, hitting 10.9 to stay alive in the second round.
Meanwhile, Paula Pareta won the first judo gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympics for Argentina beating South Korea’s Bokyeong Jeong in the final of the women’s 48kg category. She wasn’t the favorite coming in as Du won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
United States of America swimmer, Ryan Murphy said, “I had no idea, I couldn’t see much other than the splashes”.
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Thrasher ended up on top of the podium and her whirlwind will wind down soon; a biomedical engineering major, she starts classes again at West Virginia on August 17. Her perseverance and dedication have shone through and made these Olympics special from Day 1.
