The Olympics is an exciting event as athletes gather from all over the world to compete for a prestigious Olympic medal. Our passion at ArdMoor includes all outdoor activities, but the shooting events are of particular interest to the team here at ArdMoor. There are fifteen shooting events which fall into three main categories, we’ll give you a quick run down of what you can expect to see.
The three main categories of Olympic shooting events are pistol, rifle and shotgun events. Various events require the athlete to shoot from standing, kneeling or prone positions. For each event, there are two rounds from which the scores are added together to give a final score that determines who goes home with a medal.
For pistol and rifle events, the athletes aim at a 10-ringed target from 10m, 25m, or 50m. Male athletes compete in 50m rifle three positions (standing, kneeling and prone), 50m rifle prone, 10m air rifle, 50m pistol, 25m rapid fire pistol, 10m air pistol, and 10m running target. Female athletes participate in 50m rifle three positions, 10m air rifle, 25m pistol, and 10m air pistol.
In shotgun events, athletes shoot at moving clay targets. For the London 2012 Olympics, over 270,000 clay targets were used for the shotgun events alone! Both male and female athletes in this category will compete in trap, double trap, and skeet shooting.
Some people are completely unaware shooting events are included in the international competition. While new sports have been added to the Olympic line-up, most notably rugby and golf joining the events in 2016, shooting has been a part of the Olympics since the very beginning in 1896. There are only two Olympic events in which shooting events were excluded, in 1904 and 1928.
Interested in taking up shooting as a sport? Check out our shooting clothing, shooting footwear and accessories. You may also like to read the following shooting guides.