The 2026 USA Shooting Rifle Junior Olympic Championships kick off Wednesday, and the kids walking onto the line know exactly what’s stamped on the prize at the end of it: the ISSF Junior Worlds Championships in Suhl, Germany, June 16-26.
This year’s USA Shooting Rifle Junior Olympic Championships run April 8-13 across the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s two Alabama venues—smallbore at Talladega Marksmanship Park, then a mid-week caravan up I-20 to the CMP Competition Center in Anniston for air rifle.
Each shooter fires two 60-shot qualification matches per discipline, air rifle standing at 10 meters and smallbore three-position at 50 meters. Only the top eight aggregate scores advance to an ISSF-style final.
This year, athletes can elect to compete under either 2023 or 2026 ISSF rules, but only those declaring 2026 are eligible for finals and, more importantly, for the ISSF Junior World Championships team headed to Suhl.
For the shooters, the math is simple and brutal: shoot 240 of the best shots over four competition days, and you might spend late June in Germany representing the USA.
Training and equipment control kick off Wednesday in Talladega. The first shots that count go downrange Thursday morning.
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