USA Shooting’s Olympic and Paralympic team made history after bringing home a total of six medals from the Paris 2024 Games in Chateauroux, France, this summer.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games took place first from July 26 to August 11, where the USA Shooting team earned five medals and had multiple finals performances.
Sagen Maddalena, a Groveland, California, native, earned the first U.S. medal in shooting at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a silver in women’s 50m smallbore rifle. In an exciting final, Maddalena, a sergeant in the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, defeated Qiongyue Zhang of China, who had to settle for the bronze medal. Maddalena also advanced to the final for women’s 10m air rifle and finished fourth.
Vincent Hancock of Eatonton, Georgia, earned the second U.S. Olympic shooting medal and made Olympic history. He earned his fourth gold medal in men’s skeet, becoming the sixth Olympian ever to win four gold medals in the same event, joining Al Oerter (USA, discus), Paul Elvstrom (Denmark, sailing one-person class), Carl Lewis (USA, long jump), Michael Phelps (USA, 200m individual medley) and Mijain Lopez (Cuba, Greco-Roman heavyweight wrestling). He is the first shooting Olympian to accomplish this feat. (Note: Katie Ledecky achieved the same feat later that day in 800m freestyle swimming, becoming the seventh.)
Conner Prince of Burleson, Texas, joined Hancock on the podium when he captured the silver medal in men’s skeet. Prince and Hancock’s double podium marks the first time the U.S. has earned more than one medal in men’s skeet at the Olympics. The was also the first time more than one U.S. athlete competed in an Olympic men’s skeet final.
Austen Smith of Keller, Texas, secured her first Olympic medal with a bronze in women’s skeet. Smith shot an overall qualification score of 122/125. She tied Amber Rutter of Great Britian in qualification, then won a 14-point shoot-off to earn the number one bib in the final, going on to best Vanessa Hockova of Slovakia, who placed fourth.
Next, Smith and Hancock paired up to secure the fifth and final medal for USA Shooting in the mixed team skeet event. The duo earned silver, falling short to Italy in the gold medal match. Smith and Hancock were a favorite for a medal as they are the 2023 world champions in the event. They make a dynamic team as Hancock is Smith’s coach. Hancock also coaches Prince alongside Smith at the Northlake Shooting Sports in Northlake, Texas, a facility that he co-owns.
More history was made in Paris when Katelyn Abeln qualified for the women’s 25m sport pistol final. Hailing from Douglasville, Georgia, Abeln is the first U.S. woman to ever qualify for an Olympic pistol final. She finished eighth overall.
The Paralympic Games took place in France from August 28 to September 8. Team USA’s YanXiao Gong of Malibu, California, earned his first Paralympic medal and also made appearances in two shooting event finals.
Gong earned a silver medal in the P3 mixed 25m pistol SH1 event after an exciting final. He captured the first Paralympic men’s medal for the U.S. since 2004 and the first Paralympic pistol medal for the U.S. since 1984. Gong advanced to the final for P3 mixed 25m pistol SH1 after placing fourth overall in the qualification round. He bested Jungman Kim of Korea in the final, the latter ending up in third place. In addition, Gong qualified for the P4 mixed 50m pistol SH1 final where he finished eighth overall in the standings.
The U.S. Paris Olympic and Paralympic shooting teams had strong ties to the military with nine athletes who are either currently serving or are veterans. They are listed below.
- Sgt. Sagen Maddalena, U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (Olympic)
- Sgt. Ivan Roe, U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (Olympic)
- Staff Sgt. Will Hinton, U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (Olympic)
- Staff Sgt. Rachel Tozier, U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (Olympic)
- Vincent Hancock, U.S Army Veteran (Olympic)
- Keith Sanderson, U.S. Army and Marine Corps Veteran (Olympic)
- Sgt. 1st Class John Wayne Joss, U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program (Paralympic)
- Staff Sgt. Kevin Nguyen, U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (Paralympic)
- Marco De La Rosa: Marine Corps Veteran (Paralympic)
Learn more about USA Shooting at usashooting.org.
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