Paris 2024 Paralympic Games | Shooting Para sport: the constant search for 10.9, the full center of the target to achieve excellence

On the Paralympic program since 1976 and the Toronto Games, Para tir sportif is a discipline where pressure management, concentration, precision and regularity are the key words. At the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, a total of 13 gold medals will be awarded, from August 30 to September 5, at the National Shooting Center in Châteauroux.

At 10, 25 or 50 meters from the target, the world's best Para shooters will meet, from August 30 to September 5, to compete for the most coveted title in a career: the Paralympic gold medal. In the Indre department, the “Clairefontaine of shooting” will welcome athletes hungry for victory, in Dréols to be precise.

But beyond victory, one detail attracts the eye of specialists and laymen alike: the ever-increasing quest for precision. While shots are calculated to the nearest tenth, according to the distance separating the impact of the lead from the center of the target, everything is done to the nearest millimeter. Thus, the best possible score on a shot is 10.9 points: the most perfect center in existence.

Tim Jeffery, a member of Great Britain's Para-shooting team since the age of 16, is about to compete in his third Paralympic Games. The 28-year-old Briton is adamant: “Yes, it's possible to hit 10.9 points. But, as far as I remember, I've probably scored 8 or 9... in 14 years!

'Yes, it is possible to hit. For what I've been remembering, I've probably hit about 8 or 9... in 14 years!'

He explains: 'If you’re really really good and you point your rifle in the middle every single time, you’re inevitably going to get a few. But there is a degree of luck in that because the pellets we shoot with, even the best ones, will not shoot a perfect 4.5-millimetre group. So, when we match and define the perfect pellets for the perfect rifle, a good, really good batch will group in about 5 and a half mil. So, hitting a 10.9, even with the best pellets, there is a degree of luck in it. And when I say there are a few and far between, it’s absolutely perfect and we’re talking .001 of a millimetre. It’s absolutely centred.'

A format as enjoyable as it is mentally tough in Para tir sportif

At the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, there will be 160 athletes - 101 men and 59 women - from 51 countries battling for medals. Depending on the event and the competitors' disability, athletes shoot on their knees, standing (or in a shooting chair or armchair, depending on their disabilities) or lying down (for wheelchair athletes, an elbow rest or independent table may be permitted).

Thus, there are two classification categories in Para sport shooting (SH standing for Shooting):

• SH1: Athletes in this category support the weight of the rifle with their arms and shoot in a standing or sitting position (in a wheelchair or chair, depending on the nature of their disability). In SH1, it is possible to shoot either pistol or rifle.
• SH2: The rifle is the only weapon used. Athletes in this category cannot carry the rifle without assistance. They benefit from a support system for their rifle, called a gallows. This system is mobile, so that it only acts to support the weight of the weapon, while leaving the shooter responsible for aiming and release. Some athletes may use an assistant to load their rifle.

In the first qualifying round, competitors shoot sixty times at a target made up of ten concentric circles - each worth 1 point, as in archery, the closer you get to the center of the target. The cumulative result of these shots, calculated to the nearest tenth as explained above, determines the eight competitors who will take part in the final. During the final, successive shots eliminate the finalists one by one until the winner is decided.

Breathing control is essential for top-level performance: 'A lot of it is breathing, sort of like how we use breathing to control and regulate my heart rate. When I'm taking my shot, I will use my breathing to really slow it down and get that control of that it between I let it pick up again. Breathing is a really big part of it, but it's also having that focus, it's having that almost tunnel vision in just focusing on what it is you're doing and let everything else in the background, sort of melt away.' says Tim Jeffery.

For the Team GB resident, who will be lined up with Issy Bailey (pistol), Matt Skelhon and Ryan Cockbill (rifle), it's all a question of point of view. “I prefer the standing position, but I'm better in the prone position,” he laughs.

I prefer the standing position, but I'm better in the prone position (laughs)

13 gold medals to be distributed around a busy schedule

During these Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Para tir sportif will reward the best shooters in the competition. In pistol (P standing for Pistol) or rifle (R standing for Rifle), the events will be diverse:

• P1: 10 m air pistol SH1 men
• P2: 10 m air pistol SH1 ladies
• P3: 25 m pistol SH1 mixed
• P4: 50 m pistol SH1 mixed

• R1: 10 m air rifle SH1 standing men
  R2: 10 m air rifle SH1 standing women
  R3: 10 m air rifle SH1 recumbent mixed
  R4: 10 m air rifle SH2 standing mixed
  R5: 10 m air rifle SH2 recumbent mixed
  R6: 50 m rifle SH1 recumbent mixed
  R7: 50 m rifle SH1 3 positions men
  R8: rifle 50 m SH1 3 positions women
  R9: rifle 50 m SH2 recumbent mixed

Quelques noms à retenir

Parmi les 160 tireurs rassemblés à Châteauroux cet été, quelques grands palmarès seront à l'affiche. La Slovaque Veronika Vadovicova, 6 médailles paralympiques dont 4 médailles d'or et notamment le titre en Carabine 50 m couché R6 aux Jeux de Tokyo 2020, ou encore l'Indienne Avani Lekhara, première femme à remporter une médaille d’or pour l’Inde lors des Jeux de Tokyo 2020 en Carabine 10 m debout R2, seront notamment à suivre.

Au total, neuf athlètes représenteront l'équipe de France de Para tir sportif, avec de belles chances de médailles :

• Gaëlle Edon - SH1
• Cédric Fèvre-Chevalier - SH1
• Jean-Louis Michaud - SH1
• Romain Ramalingom-Sellemoutou - SH1
• Didier Richard - SH1
• Justine Beve - SH2
• Tanguy de la Forest - SH2
• Pierre Guillaume-Sage - SH2
• Kévin Liot - SH2