Thrasher, a biomedical engineering major, will begin her classes on August 17.
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“What’s most attractive of rifle is the mental side of the sport”, she said.
“What’s most attractive of rifle is the mental side of the sport”, Thrasher told DKPittsburghSports.
“I was honestly just very happy to be here, but incredibly proud to win the first gold medal of the Rio games”, Thrasher said. IOC President Thomas Bach hung the medal around her neck.
It was an intense match for Thrasher, Du and Yi for the medal contention.
Her win, the first gold of the Rio Games, helped the United States fire – literally – the first salvo in the race to top the medal table at these Games.
The sensation was flawless Saturday when she scored 208.0 points, narrowly edging Du Li (207 points) and Yi Siling (185.4 points).
Thrasher, the youngest of the 15 members of the US 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. The 2012 Olympic champion, Yi Siling of China, claimed bronze.
“This is beyond my wildest dreams”, she said.
Going into the last two shots of the final with a slender 0.7 lead, Thrasher knew Du was fully capable of leapfrogging her for gold. American Lilly King swam the fastest in the semifinal and has been outspoken about her Russian competitor, Yulia Efimova, who served a doping ban but was cleared to swim in Rio.
“I got my first deer, and I loved the adrenaline”, Thrasher said. He added a 19th gold medal to his collection as the men’s 4-by-100 relay team edged out France. Kevin Durant scored 30 points, and all 12 Americans scored.
In swimming, Mack Horton clinched Australia’s first gold medal of the Rio Olympics by upsetting favorite China’s defending champion Sun Yang in the men’s 400m freestyle final. Solo earned the shutout in her 200th game with the United States team, making her the first goalkeeper in history to reach that milestone in global play. She also became just the 11th USA player all time – across all positions – to reach that number of appearances. Despite the milestone, Solo was still peppered with jeers from the crowd, which was riled up about social media posts she made about the threat of the Zika virus.
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She had some Olympics experience even before she tried out at the U.S. Olympic trials earlier in the year. Especially at the Olympics.
