2023 Pan American Games: USA Shooting Athletes Capture 18 Medals

John Parker

posted on December 19, 2023

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2023 PANAM TEAMUSA 1 — At the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Sagen Maddalena (left) and Mary Tucker topped the Women’s 50m Smallbore Rifle leaderboard, the former taking silver and the latter winning gold.

Photo Credit: Joshua Schave

At the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, in October, USA Shooting athletes decimated the competition, garnering 18 total medals and three Paris 2024 Olympic quotas. Team USA’s 18 total shooting event medals—five gold, five silver and eight bronze—made the United States the number-one country in shooting sports at the competition, well ahead of the second-ranked country, Mexico, with eight medals.

USA Shooting at Pan Am Games, By The Numbers

Shooting is one of the 46 different sports offered at the Pan American Games, which take place every four years during the year prior to the Summer Olympics. A multi-sport event, the Pan Am Games are open to athletes from all nations of the Americas. Each shooting sports event includes a qualification round and a final or, depending on the qualification results, a bronze- or gold-medal match. USA Shooting sent 22 athletes to the 2023 Pan American Games, and qualified for 17 of the 19 total shooting event finals.

Vincent Hancock was a U.S. flag bearer in the Pan Am Games opening ceremony, the first shooting athlete to ever receive this honor.

For the opening ceremony on Friday, October 20, three-time Olympic gold medalist Vincent Hancock had the honor of bearing the United States flag in the parade of nations, along with U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles. “To carry that flag meant more to me than anything else I have ever done,” Hancock said. “Representing the country is far different than representing yourself.”

SHOTGUN

With his Beretta DT11 shotgun, Vincent Hancock earned a gold medal after topping the Men’s Skeet event leaderboard. He exited the qualification round as the topranked competitor after shooting a perfect 125 of 125 targets, two points ahead of Peruvian Nicolas Pacheco. In addition, Hancock’s qualification score set a new Pan American Games record. In the Men’s Skeet final at the Pudahuel Shooting Range, Hancock only missed three targets, and his gold-medal winning score of 57 was two points ahead of silver medalist Frederico Gil of Argentina. This was Hancock’s third Pan American Games Men’s Skeet title after previous wins in 2009 and 2011, and his final score set a new Pan Am Games record.

Vincent Hancock won a gold medal in the Men’s Skeet event and set a new Pan American Games qualification record.

Hancock said to USA Shooting’s Brittany Nelson that after missing two targets in the final, he knew what changes were necessary to stay on target. He cited his coaching experience as aiding him in avoiding further mistakes.

“I get to see what happens, especially with athletes I have worked with for long periods of time. They shoot very similarly to me,” Hancock said. “I have to diagnose them, and it helps me diagnose myself much faster, too. There’s lot of things that go into it, but I have been doing this for a really long time, so I know my body well and what I need to do to get the desired outcome.”

Vincent Hancock and Dania Vizzi won gold in the Mixed Skeet Team event. The duo defeated the Mexican team with a score of 41.

It didn’t end there for Hancock. He went on to win gold in the Mixed Skeet Team event with Dania Vizzi after defeating the Mexican team with a score of 41. The two shotgunners were accompanied on the Mixed Skeet Team podium with U.S. teammates Austen Smith and Dustan Taylor, who earned bronze with a final score of 37.

Rachel Tozier’s bronze-medal performance in Women’s Trap also secured the final U.S. Olympic shotgun quota for the Paris 2024 Games.

Team USA’s Rachel Tozier posted a bronze-medal performance in Women’s Trap, along with securing the final U.S. Olympic shotgun quota for Paris 2024. In qualification, Tozier scored 115 of 125 targets, placing her at the top of the heap as she moved on to the final. Landing the bronze medal in the final with a score of 28, Tozier was five points ahead of U.S. teammate Alicia Gough, who finished fourth.

RIFLE

For her Pan Am Games debut, Sagen Maddalena led the way in Women’s 10m Air Rifle, winning the gold medal with a final score of 249.5 and setting new Pan Am Games record in the process. “During the final shot, my heart rate was going about a thousand beats per minute, but I came down on the target and held,” Maddalena said. Joining her on the podium was Mary Tucker with the bronze medal after scoring 226.3 points.

Team USA’s Sagen Maddalena competing with her Bleiker Metallic in the Women’s 50m Smallbore Rifle event.

Tucker, who also made her Pan Am Games debut this year, won the gold medal in Women’s 50m Smallbore Rifle with a final score of 458.4, which set a new Pan American Games record. She was one of eight shooters in the final after firing a qualification score of 590-32X. Tucker was joined in the final by Maddalena, who tied the qualification world record with 596-40X. Maddalena walked away from the Women’s 50m Smallbore Rifle final as the silver medalist with a score of 457.2.

“Sagen and I have been going back and forth recently, both in air gun and smallbore, so it is nice to have that internationally and not just in the United States,” Tucker said. “It is nice to have someone from your own country up there. I don’t mind if it is her gold and my silver or my gold and her silver, I am just happy that the U.S. has one and two.”

Sagen Maddalena and Mary Tucker with medals

Sagen Maddalena and Mary Tucker went head-to-head in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle final, with Maddalena winning gold and Tucker earning a bronze medal.

Tucker went on to win a second gold medal with Rylan Kissel in the Mixed Team Air Rifle event with a score of 16, six points ahead of the Mexican team.

As for Rylan Kissell’s performance in individual competition, he earned a silver medal in Men’s 10m Air Rifle. Exiting the qualification round in second place with a score of 626.5, in the final Kissell scored 245.4, which was 0.1 point behind Mexican shooter and gold medalist Edson Ramirez, and more than 20 points ahead of Peruvian shooter Christian Morales, who finished third.

Rylan Kissell took the silver medal in Men’s 10m Air Rifle by ousting the eventual bronze medalist Christian Morales of Peru.

Tim Sherry and Lucas Kozeniesky, the son of USA Shooting Chief Executive Officer Craig Kozeniesky, also landed medals for the U.S., this time in Men’s 50m Smallbore Rifle. In qualification, Sherry led all shooters with a score of 590-32X, with Kozeniesky two points behind in second. Sherry brought home the silver medal in the final with 449.5, while Kozeniesky took the bronze with 438.8.

PISTOL

In the Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol event, Henry Leverett secured a bronze medal and earned the U.S. an Olympic quota for Paris 2024. With three competitors remaining in the final, Leverett, with a score of 23 was tied for second place with Douglas Gómez of Venezuela. After losing the shoot-off, he reached the Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol podium in third place.

Left: Alexis Lagan earned a silver medal in Women’s 10m Air Pistol, along with netting the U.S. an Olympic quota for the Paris 2024 Games. Right: Henry Leverett posted a bronze-medal performance in Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol, also landing the U.S. a Paris 2024 Olympic quota.

“I feel great especially coming off of this,” Leverett said to USA Shooting’s Brittany Nelson. “I am a little bit more relaxed now that the United States has an Olympic quota for Rapid Fire. I am looking forward to training more and adding in things I learned from this competition.”

Alexis Lagan captured two medals for Team USA, bronze in the Women’s Sport Pistol event and silver in Women’s 10m Air Pistol. For the latter, she also earned the U.S. an Olympic quota slot for Paris 2024. Lagan’s score of 231.5 in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol final was 2.6 points behind winner Alejandra Zavala of Mexico and 18.5 points ahead of Ecuadorian Diana Durango.

After garnering 18 medals and three Olympic quotas at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, USA Shooting athletes continue their march towards Paris 2024.

In the Women’s Sport Pistol final, Lagan earned a bronze medal with a score of 24. Her U.S. teammate, Lisa Emmert-Traciak, finished two points behind Lagan in fourth place.

“It feels awesome,” Lagan said about her performance in Chile. “I am doing my job. This is what I came out here to do. I wanted to secure the Air Pistol quota specifically and I got it. Of all the competitions I have been to, this is by far the closest experience to the Olympics. I am really confident now about my opportunities in Paris.”

Lisa Emmert-Traciak and teammate Nick Mowrer captured the bronze medal in the Mixed Team Air Pistol event.

USA Shooting landed another podium finish thanks to James Hall, who left the Men’s 10m Air Pistol final with a score of 239.3 and the silver medal. In the qualification round, Hall had a score of 572-12X, placing him fourth before entering the Men’s 10m Air Pistol final.

Nick Mowrer and Lisa Emmert-Traciak earned a bronze medal in Mixed Team Air Pistol with a final score of 16. They exited the qualification round in third place with a score of 571.

Post-Pan Am Games, USA Shooting athletes have now earned 18 total quotas for the United States at the Paris 2024 Olympics. When a shooting athlete earns a quota for the United States in a specific event, the U.S. then becomes eligible to have an athlete compete in the same event at the Olympics. Athletes can only earn one event quota in a four-year Olympic cycle, but each country can earn two quotas for each event.

Dania Vizzi, along with teammate Vincent Hancock, won a gold medal in the Mixed Team Skeet event after taking down Mexico, 41-39. She is pictured here holding her Perazzi shotgun.