Olympic pistol champion Yang Ji-in and Paris 2024 Olympic gold medallist in rifle Li Yuehong have been crowned the ISSF Athletes of the Year for 2024, announced at the Opening Ceremony for the ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi, India.
On a shortlist full of Olympic champions and greats across our sport, the pair were honoured prior to their participation at the event this week.
Yang, the 21-year-old Korean, had a stellar breakout year, with her greatest moment being the tense shoot-off for the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Chateauroux.
A great tussle with home favourite Camille Jedrzejewski after the tenth series of the women's 25m pistol final led to a shoot-off - which she won.
It concluded a season full of incredible results elsewhere too. At the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championships in Jakarta, Yang edged out her compatriot and world record holder Kim Ye-ji in the individual event, and won the team event too with Kim and Kim Min-seo.
In the ISSF World Cup double-header in Baku, Yang won gold in the first 25m pistol final, before taking silver behind Kim Ye-ji in the second. Of her five World Cup events this season, she made the final in four of them.
Liu Yukun has been on a record-breaking season, bettering the finals world record with a score of 468.9 on his way to victory at the ISSF World Cup in Baku in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions event. He won both Baku events - equalling the qualification world record and finished fifth in Munich in his only event this season that did not end with a gold medal around his neck.
The most important of those medals was in Paris, where his score of 594 broke the Olympic record in qualification before excelling under pressure in the standing single shots to claim the gold medal with a total of 463.6, overhauling a lead created by Ukraine's Serhiy Kulish.