The 19-year-old United States college champion, competing in her first Olympics, edged out China’s Du Li, who won gold in Athens in 2004, with an Olympic-record score of 208 in the sport’s new finals format. Thrasher had a cumulative score of 208.0 to beat Du, a two-time gold medallist, by a point.
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“I knew if I made the final anything could happen”, said the happy victor.
“I think I knew it was realistic for me to make finals, but I was not focused on that”, she said. Du Li was a gold medal victor at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
WOMEN FIRST: France won the first game of rugby at the Olympics in 92 years and the first ever for women beating Spain 24-7 to begin the six-day sevens tournament.
Yi was bang in contention to successfully defend her crown but sharp shooting saw Thrasher and Du go head to head, with the young American, displaying maturity beyond her years, edging it on the final shot. China’s Yi Siling won bronze. It’s a switch that proved profitable to kick-start what is likely to be a medal table-topping performance from the United States team at these Games, with gold in the 10m air rifle. Realising she was not going to reach great heights in skating, she took up competitive air rifle shooting during high school. The 19-year-old was able to pull off an upset on Saturday, defeating two Chinese competitors to win the gold.
In other sporting events happening later today, USA’s own Brady Ellison leads the way for the American archery team as it looks to improve on a silver-medal finish in the 2012 Games in London.
There’s a bit of disbelief and I’m very overwhelmed. “I’ve been travelling internationally the whole summer – this is just icing on the cake”.
Her hometown is now Springfield, Va.
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She will have a new title when she returns: Olympic champion.
