USA Shooting Launches Lones Wigger Junior Olympic Endowment

Above: Lones Wigger alongside the Women's Three-Position Rifle medalists from the 2015 National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships—Olympic gold medalist Ginny Thrasher of West Virginia University (right), Texas Christian University-bound Elizabeth Marsh (middle) and University of Kentucky sophomore Hanna Carr.

USA Shooting has announced the Lones Wigger/USAS Junior Olympic Endowment in cooperation with the MidwayUSA Foundation. This endowment will help create an enduring legacy for one of the greatest competitive shooters in history. The endowment serves as the official launch of the Lones Wigger Legacy Project that will be announced in full detail later this month.

Wigger helped construct the USA Shooting Junior Olympic program, which annually gives youths ages 11-20 the opportunity to compete on a national stage at the USA Shooting Center—located at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. The creation of a legacy endowment which will provide additional funding opportunities for USA Shooting to help grow youth programs and enhance grassroots development.

A five-time Olympian, Lones Wigger is an iconic figure in the shooting sports and is the only USA Shooting Team member ever elected to the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Hall of Fame. He has won more medals in international shooting competition (111) than any other shooting athlete in the world, and is the only athlete to win medals in all three Olympic rifle shooting disciplines. Wigger was selected as one of the United States Olympic Committee’s 100 Golden Olympians in 1996 and carried the Olympic Torch in 1996 and 2002. A member of four Halls of Fame, including the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and U.S. International Shooting Hall of Fame, his international shooting career spanned 25 years (1961-86). The National Rifle Association honored Wigger last year at the National Smallbore Prone Championship with the debut of the Lones Wigger Iron Man Trophy.

"The Lones Wigger Endowment is the continuation of a lifelong pursuit of greatness and an important investment in recognizing a man who has given selflessly to his sport throughout his career," said USA Shooting Interim CEO Dave Johnson. He added, "The real winners here are the youth this endowment will help serve and the betterment of youth shooting sports programs across this country."

The Lones Wigger/USAS Junior Olympic Endowment is the second youth endowment started by USA Shooting. The Athlete Endowment Fund was established in 2005 with the intention of awarding grants to shooting sport athletes to help offset the cost of competitions, equipment, ammunition, travel and training in hopes of maintaining USA Shooting’s competitive excellence well into the future.

Story and photo courtesy of USA Shooting.