When you are called Ginny Thrasher, it nearly behoves you to pick up a gun.
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American teenager Virginia Thrasher claimed the first gold medal of Rio 2016 after winning the women’s 10 metres air rifle event at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Deodoro today. The boos first started during the team’s 2-0 tournament-opening win against New Zealand on Wednesday. “They didn’t think I could kill a deer”, she told the website.
The historical record was quite simple for the US teenager who picked up shooting at the age of 15.
Thrasher topped her spectacular spring where she won three NCAA titles and a spot on the U.S. Olympic team by upsetting China’s Li Du, a two-time gold medalist, to win the women’s 10-meter air rifle title. “This is very special for me”, Thrasher said. The idea of yielding a gun and taking dead aim at a target almost 33 feet away was completely foreign.
This is the first Olympics for Thrasher – a native of West Virginia.
“It was the hardest day I’ve ever had in my life on a bike”, said Ireland’s Dan Martin, who finished 13th, one place behind Tour de France victor Chris Froome. It wasn’t her first choice’ she actually started out wanting to be an Olympic figure skater until she started joining her grandfather, father, and brothers on a hunting trip. While it’s already pretty fantastic that she won the first gold medal for Team USA at the Olympics, what’s even more incredible? Thrasher, who was on her high school rifle team, will also compete in the three-position event August 11. Only 19 and in just her second global competition, Thrasher won the Rio Games’ first gold medal. Yi won Olympic gold in the 2012 London Games.
Thrasher had the odds stacked against her, as she was not a frontrunner to even medal at this event. But Thrasher kept her sights on the target, not the podium.
“We’ll see”, she said with a wide smile. “What’s important is taking the best shot you can and giving your all. The medal is just an outcome of what I’m doing”. Eight shooters advanced, and Thrasher was sixth with a 416.3 score. “It says a statement: ‘Ginny’s here to win'”.
Thrasher, ranked 23rd in the world, scored 208.0 points to set a final Olympic record after registering 416.3 in qualification. The Americans posted a score of 270.405 to move ahead of reigning world champion Japan, which had 269.294 points. Scherer has had problems with her back and will be retiring after her time in Rio.
“I was just trying to shoot the best that I could”, Thrasher added. The U.S. team takes to the apparatuses at 3:30 p.m. (NBC).
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Whatever excitement and exuberance she felt that day clearly has been replaced by a calm and assured manner that seemed more coached than possible for a 19-year-old on the most important day of her athletic career.
