Virginia THRASHER (USA) claimed the first gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, as she won the 10m air rifle women event today - Saturday 6 August - at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Deodoro.
Indeed, following a long-lasting tradition, Shooting Sport assigned the first medals of this Olympic edition, at the presence of the IOC President Thomas Bach, of the United Nation’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, of the Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China Liu Yandong and of the ISSF President Olegario Vazquez Raña.
The 19-year old first-time Olympian Thrasher, ranked 23rd in the world, secured an odd-defying gold medal finish, beating two Olympic Champions - Du Li and Yi Siling of the People’s Republic of China.
Thrasher scored 208.0 points, setting a new Final Olympic Record - after marking 416.3 points during the qualification. She claimed the brightest medal with a full point of advantage on the 2004 Air Rifle Olympic Champion Du Li (34), who placed in second with a tally of 207.0 points. Du had set the new 10m Air Rifle Women World Record with 420.7 points at the end of the qualifications.
London 2012 Olympic Champion - Du Li’s teammate Yi Siling - finished on the third step of the podium, today, claiming Bronze with 185.4 points.
“It’s just an intense feeling of pride for my country. I’m so happy to be here!” Said Thrasher after the match. The 19-year-old American became the youngest Olympic champion in 10m air rifle women since 1992, when YEO Kab-Soon (KOR) won at age 18.
“I was just trying to shoot the best that I could. You know, for my first Olympic experience just coming away with any medal is an absolutely phenomenal thing, and for me to come away with the very first Gold medal in Rio 2016, for the United States of America, at 19 years old, is incredible!"
"I think I knew it was realistic for me to make finals, but I was not focused on that.” Continued the gold medalist, “I was focusing on just shooting the best that I could, and that got me there."
"I think when I took the lead in the final I kind of realized that this is a possibility. But I quickly refocused back on the shooting."
Silver medalist Du Li, who came back to an Olympic podium eight years after winning the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women title in Beijing, said: “I took part in four Olympics, but does this mean that I’m old? Every Olympic edition is different, especially this one, because it might be my last one. I have no future plans for now, but I would like to stay in the Shooting sport.”
Following the medalists, it was Germany’s Barbara Englader (33) who finished in 4th with 165.0 points. She was followed by Daria Vdovina of the Russian Federation (26) – 5th with 143.5 points, and by Elaheh Ahmadi of the Islamic Republic of Iran (34) – 6th with 122.5 points.
The 2008 Olympic Bronze medalist Snejana Pejcic of Croatia (34) and the second US finalist Sarah Scherer (25) were the firsts to leave the match, as they placed in 7th and 8th places with 102.0 and 78.6 points, respectively.
390 athletes coming from 97 countries are competing in the 15 Olympic shooting events at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Deodoro, from today right to the 14th of August. The next final match, the men’s 10m Air Pistol, will take place this afternoon at 15.30 (local time). Find out where to watch the match in your country here: http://go.olympic.org/ISSF