Iran’s 15-year-old Mohammad Beyranvand (pictured centre) became the fourth youngest shooting sport athlete to compete at the Olympics when he took part in the trap men event at Paris 2024, having earned his Olympic quota place by winning the Asian Championships in Kuwait City.
He finished 24th, one place above Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Matthew Coward-Holley of Britain.
China’s 17-year-old Huang Yuting came away from Paris with a gold and a silver.
First she partnered 19-year-old Sheng Liao to win the opening event of the shooting sport programme at the Chateauroux site, the 10m air rifle mixed team.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Sheng became the youngest athlete to win an Olympic shooting sport medal when he took silver in the 10m air rifle event aged 16, and in Paris he upgraded to gold in this event.
Huang then earned silver in the 10m air rifle women, losing by the narrowest of margins – 10.3 to 10.4 – in a shoot-off with 16-year-old Ban Hyojin of the Republic of Korea, who thus became the youngest woman to earn an Olympic shooting sport title.
At the other end of the age range, Italy’s 41-year-old Diana Bacosi, the Rio 2016 champion and Tokyo 2020 silver medallist in skeet women, won gold in the skeet mixed team event with Gabriele Rossetti, defeating the American world champions Vincent Hancock and Austen Smith.
Aged 55, Nino Salukvadze of Georgia became the first athlete to compete at 10-consecutive Olympic Games when she competed in the 10m air pistol and 25m pistol at Paris 2024, 36 years after winning respective silver and gold in those events at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
She has since announced that she will now retire from the sport. But Leonel Martinez of Venezuela is pushing on.
The oldest shooting sport athlete at the Paris 2024 Games at the age of 60, he finished 28th in the trap men event.
Martinez, who made his Olympic debut 40 years ago when he finished 41st in trap men at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, now plans to compete when the Olympics return to Los Angeles in 2028.