Six Medals for Team USA at the 2025 ISSF World Cup Final

With the tension of a newly accelerated finals format, the U.S. shotgun team didn’t just show up at the 2025 ISSF World Cup Final in Doha, Qatar, on December 4-9. They took over. Six medals, two electrifying golds and a grip on the leaderboard made the Americans the unmistakable headline of the week.

Christian Elliott lit the spark with a men’s skeet performance for the ages. Sneaking into the final in eighth place, he shot like a man who’d been waiting years for the moment to click. He tore through all 36 targets without a single miss, edging past Olympic gold medalist Vincent Hancock and fellow American Dustan Taylor to complete an all-USA podium.

Hancock, who fired a perfect 125 in men’s skeet qualification, stayed hot enough to grab his seventh ISSF World Cup Final silver in eight appearances with 35 targets. Taylor, steady and unshakably calm, secured bronze with 31 targets—his first medal on this stage. The trio’s sweep felt less like a surprise and more like confirmation of a U.S. squad riding a season-long surge.

Elliott, reflecting on what may be the strongest year of his career, spoke with the grounded emotion of someone who knows how hard perfection is to come by. His season began with momentum, and in Doha it peaked with a grin, a prayer and a perfect 36. “It’s a sprint,” he said in an ISSF interview of the new format, one that demands near-impossible consistency. He managed it anyway.

“No one wants to have the last bib but it’s always fun to be the underdog too,” women’s skeet silver medalist Samantha Simonton said. “This has been a great year. I’ve learned a lot this year, just about myself even without the wins. I’ve learned a lot from winning.” (Photo by Andrea Caroppo/ISSF)

In women’s skeet, Samantha Simonton added a silver after challenging China’s Jiang Yiting, the latter delivering a spotless run in the pressure-heavy final, 36-34. Simonton, earning the last bib under the expanded eight-athlete qualification format, fought through nerves and an unforgiving pace that rewards early perfection. In the final, a miss on her 30th target gave Jiang the cushion she needed, but Simonton’s season—and her poise in finals—remains one of USA Shooting’s highlights of the year.

Men’s trap capped the week with one more surge of U.S. talent. Will Hinton, competing in his first ISSF World Cup Final, led qualification and stared down a stacked field in a final where every shot felt like a coin flip. He handled it with edge-of-seat composure, outlasting Guatemala’s Jean Pierre Brol and punching through to win gold, 29-28. Teammate Glenn Eller matched the energy, battling into bronze and giving the United States yet another two-medal event.

In men’s trap, Team USA’s Will Hinton topped the leaderboard to win the gold, joined on the podium by teammate and bronze medalist Glenn Eller. (Photo by Andrea Caroppo/ISSF)

Hinton described the experience as “do or die,” a format with no room to rebuild rhythm or recover from mistakes. He stayed sharp and left Doha with the kind of breakout win that elevates a career.

By week’s end, two U.S. athletes—Vincent Hancock and Samantha Simonton—were also named ISSF Shotgun Athletes of the Year, adding an exclamation point to a performance already humming with momentum.

Vincent Hancock and Sam Simonton didn’t just shine on the firing line—they walked away with silver medals and ISSF Athlete of the Year bragging rights. Not a bad day at the office. (Photo by Andrea Caroppo/ISSF)

The U.S. team didn’t just shoot well in Doha. They controlled the podium and the moment. If 2025 is any indication, the rest of the world will be chasing them all the way to the next big stage.

See the full results of the 2025 ISSF World Cup Final at the ISSF website.

Learn more about USA Shooting at usashooting.org.