What's new at Paris 2024? The shooting mixed team skeet event

By Lingcheng Meng

5 min|

Picture by 2021 Getty Images

The first mixed event in the history of Olympic shotgun shooting was the trap mixed team event, which made its debut at Tokyo 2020. The Spanish pair, Alberto Fernandez and Fátima Gálvez took home the gold medal. The mixed event in shotgun shooting again features at Paris 2024, but the discipline has changed from "trap" to "skeet." To learn more, read on.

At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, breaking will make its debut while other sports will feature revised formats and disciplines. One of those is shooting.

The shooting competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held in 2021 witnessed another historic moment as mixed team events were added to the Olympic air rifle, air pistol, and shotgun shooting programs for the first time.

Three mixed team events will again feature at Paris 2024 with the shotgun event changing from the trap mixed team event to the mixed team skeet event.

Read on to keep up to date, as Olympics.com brings you everything you need to know about what’s new at Paris 2024.

How to qualify for shooting at Paris 2024. The Olympics qualification system explained

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Differences Between Trap and Skeet

With the exception of the 1904 and 1928 Olympic Games, shooting sports have been included at every Summer Olympic Games since Athens 1896. The amount of events has grown from five at the inaugural 1896 Games to 15 across six disciplines today.

There are two disciplines in the Olympic shotgun shooting programme: trap and skeet.

In the trap and skeet competitions, athletes fire at an object measuring just 10 cm in diameter called ‘clay’, which flies at over 100 kph.

In skeet, shooters fire at clay targets from eight different spots, each known as a ‘station’. The clays fly in from two spots, one on the left and another on the right end of the shooting range.

In trap, shooters fire at clays thrown in front of them from five different positions. The goal of trap shooting is to hit the targets that are travelling away from the shooter. In this discipline, the shooters know the target's point of origin but don't know the target's angle.

16 teams participated in the trap mixed team event at Tokyo 2020, where Fátima Gálvez/Alberto Fernández from Spain took home a historic gold medal.

Paris 2024 mixed team skeet event and qualification

A maximum of eighteen mixed teams will compete in the new mixed team skeet event on 5 August 2024 from 9:00 - 16:30 CET at the National Shooting Center, Chateauroux.

NOCs can enter a maximum of two teams in each of the mixed team events, comprising the same athletes who have qualified for and are eligible to compete in the individual events.

In the case the number of teams entered in the mixed team skeet event exceeds eighteen (18), the Qualification Ranking for the Olympic Games (QROG) will be used to determine the final entry list. The combined number of points according to the QROG in skeet individual events (produced on 9 June 2024) for both members of the mixed team will be taken into consideration.

In the mixed team skeet event, which features one male and female competitor, each shooter fires 75 shots over three rounds of 25 shots each. The top six teams then battle it out in the medal round.

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Athletes to watch in the Paris 2024 mixed team skeet event

According to the Olympic Qualification Tracker as of 1 November, only seven NOCs - USA, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, the Republic of Korea and Peru - have secured at least one individual skeet quota for each gender for Paris 2024. This grants them the opportunity to be included in the final 18-team entry list for the mixed team skeet event at Paris 2024.

Among these NOCs, the USA have already obtained two spots in both men's skeet and women's skeet, thanks to their outstanding individual performances in the Olympic qualification competitions.

Austen Smith and Vincent Hancock claimed the world title in the mixed team skeet event at the 2023 ISSF World Championships held in the capital of Azerbaijan in August. Hancock, a four-time Olympian, previously stood atop the Olympic skeet podium at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Tokyo 2020. His wealth of experience will be pivotal as he aims to create yet another Olympic milestone in Paris alongside his teammate. As evidence of that, the flagbearer for Team USA at the 2023 Pan American Games secured the gold medal there along with Dania Vizzi, while Austen Smith won bronze with Dustan Taylor. The depth of their squad makes Team USA the favourite to claim Olympic gold in this new event next summer.

Great Britain have performed consistently well in mixed team skeet events in the past two world championships. Amber Hill and Ben Llewellin won the world title at the 2022 World Shotgun Championships in Osijek, Croatia. At this year's world championships held in Baku, Amber Rutter and Ben Llewellin clinched the bronze. However, Britain still need to secure a men's individual skeet quota for Paris to showcase their strength in the mixed team skeet event in the capital of France.

Italy, Egypt and Greece also have top skeet athletes in their squad. It will be no surprise if a mixed team from one of these countries steps onto the podium at Paris 2024.

Shooting

14 Aug - 1 Sep

Shooting | Olympic Qualifier | World Championship | Baku - Azerbaijan