After a roller coaster of a final, Team USA’s Sagen Maddalena secured the silver medal in the Women’s 50m Smallbore 3-Position Rifle event on Friday, August 2, which is the first medal for the U.S. in shooting so far at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Maddalena was the top ranked shooter in Women’s 50m Smallbore 3-Position Rifle after yesterday’s qualification round. While she opened strong in the final, she slightly faltered after some bad shots during standing position, dropping to as low as fifth place in the rankings.
“I was able to climb back up the ladder, and I am happy with that,” Maddalena said.
Maddalena made her way through the elimination round, eventually rocketing past Chinese shooter Quiongyue Zhang to earn the silver medal, recovering from two bad shots she made in standing.
“I assessed the mistake[s]. My [setting] was a little off, and I adjusted it and had to make good shots even though my heart was pumping,” Maddalena said. “I was happy I was able to do that.”
Maddalena’s silver medal is the first for the U.S. in the Women’s 50m Smallbore 3-Position Rifle event since the London 2012 Olympic Games, where Jamie Lynn Gray won a gold medal. In addition, the U.S. landed a gold medal at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics when Launi Meili won the event.
Here’s a recap of the Women’s 50m Smallbore 3-Position Rifle final at the Paris 2024 Olympics today.
The final began with shooters in kneeling position. In the first series of five shots, Maddalena dropped to second place after shooting a nine for her fourth shot. She recovered to retain the lead with a score of 51.2 after the first five shots. Notably, she hit three 10.7s during the series.
In the second series of kneeling position, her first shot was a 10.7, followed by a 10.0, 10.2, 10.5 and closing out the series with a fine 10.8 shot. Maddalena exited the second series of kneeling position in first place with a cumulative score of 104.4.
For the third and final series in kneeling position, she opened with pair of a 10.6s, then fired a 10.4, a 10.0 and ended with a 9.9, dropping to fourth place to close kneeling.
At this point, only 0.3 points separated the top four shooters in the final.
Next was 15 shots in prone position after a four minute prep period. Maddalena started with a strong 10.8, then fired 10.4, 10.3, 10.5 and 10.3 to end the first five prone shots with 52.3 and a total score of 208.2, putting her back in first place by 0.1 point over China’s Quiongyue Zhang.
For the second series of prone, Maddalena fired a 10.6 to open, then 10.4, 10.7, 10.8 and 10.5. She kept the lead with a total score of 261.2. Notably, six of the eight shooters in this series began with a 10.6 shot. In addition, Maddalena’s second series of five shots in prone was the best of all shooters in the final so far.
For third and final prone series, Maddalena first shot a 10.8, then a pair of 10.5s, a 10.6 and then ended prone with a 10.4. She stayed in first place with 52.8 for the series and a 314.0 total score, which was 0.7 ahead of Zhang, who was in second place.
After a nine minute prep period, the standing portion of the final began, and the pressure was mounting for all shooters. Maddalena began the first standing series with a 10.2, then stunned the crowd after firing way off center with an 8.1. After that shot, she dropped to fifth place. However, Maddalena bounced back with her third shot, a 10.6, jumping back to second place. Then she fired an 8.8, going back to fifth. For the last shot of this, Maddalena fired a 10.1, ranking her fifth with total score of 361.8.
In the next standing series of five shots, Maddalena started with a 9.3, then 10.5, 10.6, 10.5 and her last shot was a 10.2. She moved up one position to fourth place with a 412.9 total score.
As for the first shot in single shot elimination, Maddalena fired a 9.9, staying in fourth place.
The next shot was for fourth place. Maddalena fired a solid 10.8, rocketing her back to first place, with only a 0.2 margin between her and second place.
Now the final was down to four shooters. Maddalena’s next shot was a 9.4, placing her third, as well as avoiding elimination and guaranteeing her a podium finish.
For the next shot, Maddalena fired a 9.9, putting her in a shoot-off with Zhang. Maddalena fired a 10.1 to Zhang’s 8.7, landing her in a showdown with Chiara Leone of Switzerland for the gold medal in the event.
To close out the final and determine the gold medal, Maddalena fired 10.1 to Leonne’s 10.8, giving the former the silver medal. Maddalena’s final score was 463.0.
You really could not ask for a more thrilling final. USA Shooting Rifle Coach Peter Durben described Maddalena has “tough” when it comes to competing under pressure.
When asked about how she bounces back after a bad shot, Maddalena said that she relies on her training and tries to accept her mistakes.
“I go in knowing that if I dwell on those mistakes, they’re more likely to happen again,” Maddalena said. “If I trust my process and trust myself, then I can get back on track. I’ve learned—and it’s been an ongoing learning experience—when that happens, just to let it go. Now it’s like, ‘that happened. I made a mistake. It costs me. Alright, next shot.’ Stick to the process and do the work.”
The gold medalist in the Women’s 50m Smallbore 3-Position Rifle at the Paris 2024 Olympics was Chiara Leone of Switzerland with a score of 464.4. Taking bronze was Zhang with 452.9. Additionally, Leone set a new Olympic record, eclipsing the previous record score of 463.9 set by fellow Swiss shooter Nina Christen at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Check back often with Shooting Sports USA for the latest news and updates from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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