What is Shooting?
Sport shooting is the use of a firearm to hit a target with a bullet. These can be stationary targets or moving targets known as clays.
By whom, where and when was Shooting invented?
Shooting as a sport has been practised for hundreds of years in European countries, with some German shooting clubs dating back more than 500 years.
The popularity of the sport grew in English-speaking countries with the formation of the National Rifle Association in 1859, which originally met in Wimbledon, London, and the National Rifle Association (USA) in 1871.
What are the rules of Shooting?
Shooting is broadly split, for Olympic competition at least, into three different groups: rifle, pistol and shotgun.
Rifle and pistol competitions are held on shooting ranges where the athletes aim at targets a set distance away. In shotgun events, competitors shoot at clay targets propelled at a series of different directions and angles.
Most events involve a ranking or qualification round in a set time before shooters go up against each other in elimination competition.
Shooting and the Olympics
Shooting has been a near-permanent fixture at the modern Olympic Games, only being omitted at the 1904 and 1928 Games.
From five events at the inaugural 1896 Games to 15 across six disciplines today, the sport has grown steadily alongside advances in firearms technology.
The current six disciplines consist of four with stationary targets: air pistol, air rifle, 25m pistol (rapid fire for men) and rifle three positions (kneeling, prone, standing).
The other two involving moving clays are trap (where the clay moves away from the shooter), and skeet (where the clay, or sometimes two clays, moves across the shooter).
Best Shooters to watch
The American Vincent Hancock became the first shooter to defend the skeet title, at London 2012, and the five-time world champion regained his Olympic crown at Tokyo 2020 after missing the Rio Games.
Vitalina Batsarashkina won 10m air pistol and 25m pistol gold in Tokyo for ROC, dethroning Greek star Anna Korakaki in the latter.
China's Yang Qian also claimed double gold in Tokyo, in the women's 10m air rifle and the mixed team event.
Shooting Competition Rules at Paris 2024
For Paris 2024, the mixed trap competition was replaced by mixed skeet. There was also a new elimination final format for the 25m pistol and shotgun events.
Shooters started from scratch in the final, but instead of there being eight in a straight elimination final (six in shotgun), there were now two four-person heats, with the top two from each heat contesting the medals.
In rifle and air pistol, as in Tokyo, the eight finalists competed against each other, with the worst shooter discarded until there were two left to battle for gold.
