COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — USA Shooting has received a cash grant from the MidwayUSA Foundation through the Lones Wigger Youth Programs Endowment. The grant will help cover ammunition, targets, competition entry fees and travel for the organization’s junior athletes, including funding to send rifle, pistol and shotgun competitors to the 2026 ISSF Junior World Championship in Suhl, Germany, this June.
“We are sincerely grateful to MidwayUSA Foundation for their continued support of USA Shooting youth programs,” USA Shooting CEO Kelly Reisdorf said. “This grant directly assists with the essential expenses associated with training and competition, helping ensure young athletes have access to the resources they need to grow and succeed in our sport.”
The endowment honors Lones Wigger, a five-time Olympian and two-time Olympic gold medalist who remains the most decorated international shooting athlete in U.S. history. He won 111 medals in international competition, the most of any shooting athlete in the world, and is the only competitor to have won medals in all three Olympic rifle disciplines. Wigger was elected to the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Hall of Fame—the only USA Shooting Team member so honored—and was named one of the USOC’s 100 Golden Olympians in 1996. He carried the Olympic Torch in both 1996 and 2002. A member of four halls of fame, Wigger’s international career spanned 25 years from 1961 to 1986, and he won multiple NRA National Championship titles. The NRA honored him with the debut of the Lones Wigger Iron Man Trophy at the National Smallbore Prone Championship in 2016.
Beyond his competitive shooting accolades, Wigger devoted his post-competition career to building an infrastructure for U.S. youth shooters still in use today. He helped construct USA Shooting’s Junior Olympic program, which gives athletes ages 11 to 20 the opportunity to compete on a national stage at the USA Shooting Center at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. The Lones Wigger Endowment, established in 2017 through the MidwayUSA Foundation by donors who shared Wigger’s commitment to mentorship, was created to provide perpetual funding for those programs.
“My brothers and I are very excited about this opportunity to help send USA Shooting’s best juniors to the world stage in Suhl, Germany,” said Wigger’s daughter, Deena McDorman, winner of the 2025 NRA National Smallbore Prone Championship and a member of the U.S. Roberts Team that competed last summer at Bisley. “There was nothing more important to our father than the promotion of junior shooting programs and the future of this great sport. For us, we get to see his memory and legacy live on through these hopeful future champions.”
The funding was part of the MidwayUSA Foundation's latest round of annual cash grant disbursements.
“Supporting organizations that directly impact and support the development of our nation’s youth shooting teams and athletes is core to [the] Foundation’s mission,” MidwayUSA Foundation Executive Director Pete Eisentrager said. “The funds they received from our recent cash grant cycle will help ensure those young athletes have the resources and funding they need to represent us on a national and worldwide level.”
MidwayUSA Foundation endowments operate on a perpetual model: each year, youth programs are eligible to receive 5% of the endowment balance as a cash grant, and every new donation increases that annual payout. Contributions are tax-deductible and matched through the MidwayUSA Foundation’s matching program. Thanks to Larry and Brenda Potterfield, the Foundation removes nothing for operating expenses, meaning 100% of each donation goes to the endowment balance. Donations can be made at midwayusafoundation.org.
For more information on USA Shooting and its youth programs, visit usashooting.org.
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