USA Shooting has announced that National Rifle Coach Dan Durben will retire next January. He will finish out the 2021 season before retiring to his home state of South Dakota after a 40-year career as an athlete and coach, including 12 years as a National Team Coach.
Durben began shooting at the age of 13 in St. Paul, Minn., and was involved in both biathlon and rifle shooting through high school. He made the decision to switch full-time to rifle as a walk-on-turned-scholarship-athlete, and competed for the Eastern Kentucky University rifle team, graduating in 1982 with a degree in Chemistry.
As an athlete, Durben became a National Champion in both Smallbore Rifle and Air Rifle (1987), a World Champion in Air Rifle (1987) and an Olympian (1988).
Durben served as the National Rifle Coach from 1997–2000, and was the Olympic Team Coach for the 2000 Sydney Games. From 2003 to 2008, he was the Paralympic National Coach, taking teams to the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
He returned to USA Shooting as the National Rifle Coach once again in 2019, saying it was the athletes who drew him to the position. “I knew that we had fantastic athletes on the National Team and in the pipeline. I am really honored to have had the opportunity to work with them,” Durben said.
The retirement annoucement comes after a tremendous 2021 season, where athletes coached by Durben secured two Olympic medals and eight World Cup medals. The rifle team athletes currently hold six top-eight world rankings, including No. 1 in both Men’s and Women’s Air Rifle. In addition, five U.S. rifle athletes have qualified for the 2021 ISSF President’s Cup, the most invitations to this event in more than a decade.
Durben is excited about the direction of USA Shooting. “The entire organization has made amazing progress over the last couple of years ... The future certainly looks bright and I’m confident that Team USA will have great success in Paris, in L.A. and beyond.”
USA Shooting said it will post a job listing for qualified candidates. Learn more at USAShooting.org.
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