Sixteen-year-old Ban Hyojin will return to her high school in Daegu as the youngest ever female Olympic shooting sport champion after a compelling 10m air rifle women final where she defeated another sublimely talented teenager, China’s Huang Yuting, by 0.1 points in a shoot-off.
In a dramatic finale to the main scheduled action, both had equalled the Olympic record of 251.8.
The young Republic of Korea athlete, who had set an Olympic record of 634.5 in the previous day’s qualification, appeared to have let gold slip from her grasp after carrying a healthy 1.3 lead into the final series of two shots only to slump to a 9.9 and then a 9.6. She looked stunned at this turn of events.
Huang, 17, whose own slip to 9.6 with the 22nd of her 24 shots seemed to have presented her rival with the title, reduced the gap to 0.9 as she scored 10.3 with her penultimate effort. She then held her nerve to score 10.5 and draw level with her shell-shocked opponent, with both credited as equalling the mark set by China’s Yang Qian at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Having recovered the initiative, Huang, who earned gold with Sheng Lihao in the 10m rifle mixed team event that opened this Paris 2024 shooting sport programme in Chateauroux, looked set for another, and when her shoot-off effort registered as 10.3 it seemed she had done enough.
But Ban, having effectively missed two match points, re-focused superbly to win with an score of 10.4 and spark pandemonium among her supporters in the stands. The stunned expression now gave way to a smile – although it was a dazed smile…and it soon gave way to tears of joy.
It was another triumphant moment for a Republic of Korea team that had supplied the gold and silver medallists in the previous day’s 10m air pistol women final thanks to, respectively Oh Ye Jin and Kim Yeji.
The two teenagers had been effectively involved in a private struggle for gold, but Switzerland’s 21-year-old Audrey Gogniat, the European bronze medallist, produced the performance of her career – so far – to earn bronze after seeing off the enduring challenge of Sagen Maddalena of the United States.
There was huge applause for 21-year-old Oceanne Muller, the first home athlete to reach a shooting sport final, as she replicated the position she had earned at the Tokyo 2020 Games by finishing fifth after winning a shoot-off with India’s Ramita Ramita by 10.8 to 10.5 to avoid elimination in seventh place.
Muller also moved ahead of Kazakhstan’s 21-year-old Alexandra Le – winner of a bronze medal in the opening day’s mixed team event – but she could not find her way past Maddalena.
“It was beautiful, because in Tokyo there was nobody behind the shooters,” Muller said. “It was very different shooting here in France in front of family and friends. That was good motivation.
“I wasn’t good at the start of the final, and that was a penalty later on, but I am competitive. I would’ve liked to have been on the podium. I am happy for finishing fifth.”
Norway’s Jeanette Hegg Duestad, who had finished one place behind Ban in qualification, also finishing inside the Olympic record which she herself had set at the Tokyo 2020 Games, was the first to make her exit in the final.
Huang had led her younger rival in the first two knock-out series, but a perfect 10.9 in the third stage moved the Korean ahead by 0.1 points. It was a moment of perfection on a perfect day for Ban Hyojin.