Shooting at The 2008 Summer Olympics

Shooting At The 2008 Summer Olympics

Shooting competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were held from August 9 to August 17, at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall (rifle and pistol events) and Beijing Shooting Range Clay Target Field (shotgun events). Of the fifteen events, the host country won five.

Highlights included:

• Two rifle shooters, Czech Kateřina Kůrková and American Matthew Emmons, who met at the 2004 Olympics, married in 2007 and returned to the 2008 Games to win a gold and two silver medals between them.
  • Kateřina Emmons equalled the world record with a perfect 400 in the women's air rifle competition.
  • Matthew lost a large lead in the very last shot of the men's three positions - just as he had in Athens four years earlier.
• Abhinav Bindra won India's first ever individual Olympic gold
• Russian Natalia Paderina and Georgian Nino Salukvadze, whose countries were at war, won silver and bronze respectively in the 10m Air Pistol. They shared a kiss on the podium and begged their governments to end the war.
• The eighth appearance at the Olympics for Latvian Afanasijs Kuzmins
• The seventh Olympic appearance for Slovenian Rajmond Debevec (who won bronze), making him only the fifth shooter to have ever competed in at least seven Olympic Games.
• The sixth Olympic appearance for 8 shooters, raising to 22 the number of shooters who have competed at at least six Olympic Games :
  • Canadian Dr Susan Nattrass, age 57
  • Finn Juha Hirvi,
  • Italian Andrea Benelli
  • German Ralf Schumann, who won his fifth Olympic medal.
  • Bulgarian Tanyu Kiryakov
  • Monegasque Fabienne Diato-Pasetti,
  • Serbian Jasna Šekarić (competing under her fourth flag at the Olympics without ever having changed nationality),
  • Georgian Nino Salukvadze. She won bronze, completing the set twenty years after she won gold and silver at the 1988 Olympics.
• The fifth Olympic appearance for 16 shooters, raising to 80 the number of shooters who have competed at at least five Olympic Games : Mönkhbayar Dorjsurengiin, Svetlana Demina, María del Pilar Fernández, Mariya Grozdeva, Michael Diamond, Franck Dumoulin, Thomas Farnik, Andrei Inešin, Harald Jensen, Kanstantsin Lukashyk, Russell Mark, Sergey Martynov, Giovanni Pellielo, Stevan Pletikošić, Iulian Raicea, Axel Wegner.

The sport also faced its first major doping case, when Kim Jong-su of North Korea was stripped of his medals in 50 metre pistol and 10 metre air pistol after testing positive for propranolol, a beta blocker that some performers use to reduce stage fright and some surgeons use to reduce hand tremors during operations.