Did You Know? Olympic Shooting Facts

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Shooting is one of the original sports of the modern Olympics, having been part of the first edition of the games in 1896.

The founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was a French pistol champion.

The first Olympics had 5 shooting events, and today there are 15 events, with different firearms in various calibres: air rifle and air pistol in .177 calibre, rifle and pistol in .22 Long Rifle calibre, and shotgun. (Some people and some countries don’t classify air pistols or air rifles as firearms.)

At the Paris Games in 1900, live pigeons were used as moving targets, later to be replaced by clay targets.

Women started competing in shooting events separately from men at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

Team Canada has two shooters competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro: Lynda Kiejko, competing in women’s 10-metre air pistol and women’s 25-metre pistol, and Cynthia Meyer, competing in women’s trap shooting.

Click here for the Official Spectator Guide to Shooting for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, which includes the schedule of shooting events.

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