USA Shooting Secures Three Olympic Quotas At 13th CAT Championships, Sweeps Men’s & Women’s Skeet Events

USA Shooting athletes captured three Olympic quotas for Team USA at the Paris 2024 Games, along with eight medals after four days of competition at the 13th Confederacion Americana de Tiro (CAT) Championships, held at the Las Palmas Shooting Range in Lima, Peru.

In total, 12 Paris 2024 Olympic quotas are up for grabs at the 2022 CAT Championships in Lima, including the ones already secured by Team USA. The competition started on November 4, and will run through November 13.

Seventeen-year-old Suman Sanghera earned the first U.S. Olympic quota at the 2022 CAT Championships in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol individual event, taking home a gold medal by triumphing over teammate and silver medalist Alexis Lagan in the final, 16-8. The two shooters ended qualification in first and second places, with Sanghera entering the final with a score of 250.5 over Lagan’s score of 249.6.

Team USA’s Alexis Lagan (left, silver medal) and Suman Sanghera (center, gold medal) with their 2022 CAT Championships Women’s Air Pistol medals in Lima, Peru. Sanghera earned an Olympic quota along with her Women’s Air Pistol individual gold medal. (Photo by ISSF)

Dania Vizzi earned the next U.S. Olympic quota in Women’s Skeet after she placed first in the event, winning the shoot-off over Francisca Crovetto of Chile in the final, 4-3. They were tied at 32 before the shoot-off. Caitlin Connor also competed in the Women’s Skeet final, finishing third with a score of 23 to receive the bronze medal.

After Vizzi’s victory in Peru at the 2022 CAT Championships, two Women’s Skeet quotas for the Paris 2024 Olympics are fulfilled. The first was earned by Sam Simonton last month at the 2022 ISSF World Championship.

USA Shooting’s Dania Vizzi, pictured above, defeated Francisca Crovetto of Chile in the final shoot-off to capture the 2022 CAT Championships Women’s Skeet event individual championship and the gold medal. (Photo by USA Shooting)

Next at the 2022 CAT Championships in Peru, Dustan Taylor, a soldier with the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, earned Team USA an Olympic quota in Men’s Skeet after winning the final and gold medal over silver medalist Frederico Gil of Argentina, 37-31.

Taylor would go on to earn a team gold medal with fellow U.S. Men’s Skeet shooters Christian Elliott and Ben Keller, after defeating the Chilean trio of Jorge Atalah, Hector Flores and Matias Martinez in the final, 6-4.

Team USA’s medal count did not stop there. The Women’s 10m Air Pistol Team of Suman Sanghera, Alexis Lagan and Sandra Uptagrafft won gold after facing top international teams, including a win against the silver medalist Guatemalan team, 12-6, in the final.

The U.S. duo of Dania Vizzi (pictured) and Dustan Taylor swept the Women’s and Men’s Skeet individual events at the 2022 CAT Championships in Peru, also picking up two Paris 2024 Olympic quotas to go with the gold medals. (Photo by USA Shooting/ISSF)

The U.S. Men’s 10m Air Pistol Team also earned hardware. Nick Mowrer, James Hall and Anthony Lutz placed second to earn silver medals, two points behind the winning Cuban team, 12-10. In addition, Mowrer, a soldier in the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, also took home a silver medal in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol individual event with a score of 11, six points behind the gold medalist, Philipe Chateaubrian of Brazil.

USA Shooting rifle, pistol and shotgun athletes still have a handful of events left to compete in at the XIII CAT Championships in Peru. You can view up-to-date results of the competition at the International Shooting Sport Federation website.

Learn more about USA Shooting at usashooting.org.