Many of the world’s finest shotgun athletes gathered for the 2025 ISSF World Cup Final last week in Doha, Qatar. Amid the pageantry, two U.S. athletes—Vincent Hancock and Samantha Simonton—stood at the center of it all, receiving the 2025 ISSF Men’s and Women’s Shotgun Athlete of the Year honors. It was a moment steeped in both prestige and inevitability, like watching champions step into the roles their seasons had written for them.
The ISSF Athlete of the Year Awards draw from a global pool of talent, recognizing excellence across rifle, pistol and shotgun. Athletes, coaches and journalists cast their expert votes, while fans worldwide contributed to the People’s Choice tally. When the results settled, the top five in each category emerged, a distinguished shortlist representing the highest level of international competition.
For the men, five-time Olympic medalist Hancock rose above a formidable field that included Italy’s Mauro de Filippis, Croatia’s Josip Glasnovic, Czechia’s Daniel Korcak and Italy’s Elia Sdruccioli. His season had already been remarkable, full of the steady shooting that has long defined his career. To see him awarded in Doha felt less like an announcement and more like the satisfying confirmation of a story that had been unfolding all year.
As for Simonton, she topped a women’s field featuring U.S. teammate Dania Vizzi, China’s Jiang Yiting, Spain’s Mar Molne and Italy’s Silvana Stanco. Her surge throughout the season signaled the rise of an athlete who has learned not just to meet the sport’s pressure, but to thrive within it.
A sergeant in the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, Simonton entered the season with a reputation for discipline that set her apart on the international stage. Her yearlong consistency earned notable recognition from the ISSF, which remarked that she “laid claim to being [Kim Rhode’s] natural successor … in what has undoubtedly been her best year to date,” a testament to her performance. Selected from a global field narrowed to five elite shotgun competitors, she arrived in Doha as an Olympic alternate and multi–World Cup medalist, continuing to sharpen her technical skill and mental resilience under the AMU banner.
Adding to the celebration of global talent, the ISSF People’s Choice Awards offered fans their own voice in recognizing excellence. This year, India’s Zoravar Singh Sandhu claimed the men’s honor, while Norway’s Jeanette Hegg Duestad captured the women’s award.
The week in Qatar offered one final flourish. Hancock and Simonton each captured skeet silver medals at the ISSF World Cup Final, adding two more marks of excellence to Team USA’s six-medal haul. It was the kind of finish that reminds us why sport holds such enduring power: moments when talent and resolve converge, when athletes meet their defining stage and rise with unmistakable clarity.
To explore the full roster of honorees across all disciplines, including every 2025 ISSF Athlete of the Year recipient, visit the ISSF’s official announcement at issf-sports.org.
