What we learned: Shooting wrap from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Shooting had the honour of the maiden gold medal at Tokyo 2020, and the rest didn't disappoint either, take a look at the most memorable moments, get highlights, replays, and what we have to look forward to at Paris 2024.

8 min

Shooting

Silver Medalists Mary Carolynn Tucker and Lucas Kozeniesky of Team United States, Gold Medalists Qian Yang and Haoran Yang of Team China, and Bronze Medalists Yulia Karimova and Sergey Kamenskiy of Team ROC during the medal ceremony for the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team finals on day four of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Asaka Shooting Range on July 27, 2021 in Asaka, Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

(2021 Getty Images)

Tokyo 2020 pulled the trigger with the first gold medal of the Games awarded in shooting to Chinese athlete YANG Qian on Saturday 24 July 2021.

And the excitement continued as 300 shooting stars took aim at 54 medals across 15 different events.

21-year-old Yang claimed gold in the 10 metre air rifle event setting a new Olympic record, and she was first in a parade of fresh faces upsetting the world order in shooting events.

But it wasn't only bright young athletes making history, Georgia's evergreen Nino Salukvadze made an incredible 9th straight Olympic Games at 52 years of age.

Chinese athletes were unmatchable in the mixed-team air events while on the shotgun range Vincent Hancock and Amber English helped the U.S. sweep skeet.

Scroll on for shooting's Top Five moments from Tokyo 2020, and how to watch highlights and replays.

1. YANG Qian makes global headlines, China on target in stellar Games

21-year-old prodigy Yang Qian started the Tokyo 2020 gold rush by winning the Games' opening gold medal, the news lighting up the newswires worldwide.

She claimed the 10 metre air rifle event and set a new Olympic record, also setting the tone for Chinese shooters who managed at least one medal in ten of fifteen events.

Yang Qian topped the podium once more in the 10m air rifle mixed team competition alongside teammate YANG Haoran.

More medals followed in a long list:

PANG Wei: Bronze - men's men's 10m air pistol

JIANG Ranxin: Bronze - women's 10m air pistol

YANG Haoran: Bronze - men's 10m air rifle (His second medal)

SHENG Lihao: Bronze behind YANG in the 10m air rifle

WEI Meng: Bronze - women's skeet

JIANG/PANG: Gold - team 10m air pistol mixed team

YANG Qian/YANG Haoran: Gold - 10m air rifle mixed team

XIAO Jiaruixuan: Bronze - 25m women's pistol

LI Yuehong: Bronze - men's 25m rapid fire pistol

ZHANG Changhong put the icing on the cake by clinching gold in the closing 50m rifle three positions event with a World and Olympic record.

A shooting masterclass from China.

2. Shooting's next-gen shines

The Olympics always provides a stage for young people to prove themselves and shake up the sporting world order.

And that's exactly what young shooters did in Tokyo.

After 21-year-old YANG Qian kicked things off in style ROC athlete Vitalina Batsarashkina, 24, became a double-gold medallist winning both the women's 10m air pistol and the 25m event.

20-year-old William Shaner celebrated the 10m air rifle men's Olympic title after a thrilling final defeating China's Sheng by .07.

Shaner shot 251.6 to Sheng's 250.9.

Shaner, who started shooting when he was nine, hails from Colorado Springs and is the youngest American man ever to win a rifle event.

He lived up to his reputation as a rising star of shooting.

25-year-old Jean Quiquampoix upgraded his Rio 25m rapid fire pistol silver to gold in Tokyo, shooting a final score of 34 to match Leuris Pupo's gold medal-winning mark from London 2012, an Olympic record.

Oh, and world-record slayer ZHANG Changhong is only 21.

The kids are alright.

3. Nino Salukvadze takes aim at record 10th Olympics

22 years before Zhang was even born Nino Salukvadze was shooting at an Olympics.

Seoul 1988 was her first taste of Olympic-level marksmanship and she's never looked back, competing at every single Games since then, Tokyo 2020 being her ninth, an Olympic record.

No other woman has competed at nine straight Games.

The Georgian just missed out on qualification in the women's 25m rapid fire pistol event with shooters raising the bar accross the board, she came fourth in qualifying on 30 July and only the top three went through.

The 52-year-old completed a life-long mission by winning an Olympic bronze at Rio 2016, where she recorded another first competing alongside her son Tsotne Machavariani who was 18 at the time.

They became first mother and son to take part side-by-side at an Olympic Games in shooting.

But Salukvadze's Olympic history-making record-breaking journey might not be over yet, watch out Paris!

4. Three-in-a-row for Hancock as USA sweep skeet

Vincent Hancock and Amber English helped the U.S. sweep the skeet events, with Hancock hailed a three-time Olympic champion.

Patience and poise are essential skills for shooting and Hancock showed plenty of both as he had to wait nine years to claim that third gold medal in men's skeet.

The 32-year-old let out a whoop after he shot a 59 out of a possible 60 targets to overcome Denmark’s Jesper Hansen who scored 55.

It was a third gold medal in four Olympic appearances for him, topping the podium at 2008 in Beijing, at London 2012, and now at Tokyo 2020.

It also meant a U.S. sweep as Amber English had already claimed gold gold in women's skeet shooting with 56 hits, setting a new Olympic record.

Not bad for your first Olympics.

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5. Dream comes true for refugee shooter

The Olympics is about much more than the medals, and it was a dream-come-true for refugee shooter Luna Solomon who made her debut on the greatest sporting stage there is.

Forced to flee Eritrea, Solomon has been training under Olympic champion shooter Niccolo Campriani of Italy.

"I left my country (Eritrea) because of a lack of freedoms. I like my country and I miss my country and I hope I am back in my country one day, but for the moment I am staying in the Olympic city [Lausanne, Switzerland]."

Up against the world's elite in Tokyo, Solomon didn't manage to advance to the final, but just competing was the fulfillment of a life-long ambition for the 27-year-old.

"The journey is not easy, but it is possible to progress and succeed in sports and activities like people born of other nationalities," Solomon said Thursday before she competed.

Now she's already looking ahead to the next Games.

"I am going to continue with sport until Paris 2024. I want to participate in those Olympic Games."

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When and where to watch shooting replays on Olympics.com

You can watch highlights and full events from shooting at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics right here: olympics.com/tokyo2020-replays

Hello Paris

Just three short years from the Paris Games, shooting is going to be as exciting as ever in the French capital.

Look out for the young guns who have made a name for themselves in Tokyo, with a few fresh faces always popping up at every Games.

It's likely we'll see Georgia's Salukvadze in Paris too, she finished 31st in the 10-metre air pistol and 25th in the 25m pistol and was on the verge of quitting, but a call from her son Tsotne changed her mind, as she told Reuters:

“... the whole time we were talking, he kept saying, ‘This is out of the question. There are three years left. You can go for your tenth Olympics, you have a chance. Why not take it? If you quit, I will quit too!’ And I don’t want him to quit,” she said.

Maybe they'll both make Paris again!

China set the bar in air pistol and rifle events, while the USA ruled skeet, the bar is set for three years time.

India sent a 15-member contingent to Tokyo but things didn't go to plan.

Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary, carried great hopes into mixed 10m Air Pistol event, but didn't make it past the the second qualification stage.

Expect Team India to take away the positives and come back stronger in three years' time, when shooting will once again be front-centre at the Olympic Games.