Shooting 101: What's happened since the Tokyo Olympics?

Which athletes/countries won gold at the Tokyo Games?

U.S. shooters earned three gold medals, second only to China, and six total medals, third behind China and Russia. Other countries with multiple medals included the Czech Republic, Switzerland and San Marino. 

Below is the full medal results of each event at the Tokyo Games:

RIFLE

Women's air rifle

• Gold: Yang Qian (CHN)
• Silver: Anastasiia Galashina (ROC)
• Bronze: Nina Christen (SUI)

Men's air rifle 

• Gold: Will Shaner (USA)
• Silver: Sheng Lihao (CHN)
• Bronze: Yang Haoran (CHN)

Men’s 3-position rifle

• Gold - Zhang Changhong (CHN)
• Silver - Sergey Kamensky (ROC)
• Bronze - Milenko Sebic (SRB)

Women's 3-position rifle

• Gold - Nina Christen (SUI)
• Silver - Yulia Zykova (ROC)
• Bronze - Yulia Karimova (ROC)

Mixed team air rifle

• Gold - Yang/Yang (CHN)
  Silver - Tucker/Kozeniesky (USA)
  Bronze - Karimova/Kamensky (ROC) 

PISTOL

Women’s air pistol

• Gold: Vitalina Batsarashkina (ROC)
• Silver: Antoaneta Kostadinova (BUL) 
• Bronze: Jiang Ranxin (CHN) 

Men’s air pistol

• Gold: Javad Foroughi (IRI)
• Silver: Damir Mikec (SRB)
• Bronze: Pang Wei (CHN) 

Women's sport pistol

• Gold - Vitalina Batsarashkina (ROC)
• Silver - Kim Min-Jung (KOR)
• Bronze - Xiao Jiaruixuan (CHN) 

Men’s rapid fire pistol

• Gold - Jean Quiquampoix (FRA)
• Silver - Leuris Pupo (CUB)
• Bronze - Li Yuehong (CHN)

Mixed team air pistol

• Gold - Jiang/Pang (CHN)
• Silver - Batsarashkina/Chernousov (ROC)
• Bronze - Kostevych/Omelchuk (UKR) 

SHOTGUN

Women's skeet

• Gold - Amber English (USA)
• Silver - Diana Bacosi (ITA)
• Bronze - Wei Meng (CHN)

Men's skeet

• Gold - Vincent Hancock (USA)
• Silver - Jesper Hansen (DEN)
• Bronze - Abdullah Al-Rashidi (KUW) 

Women's trap

• Gold - Zuzana Rehak-Stefecekova (SVK)
• Silver - Kayle Browning (USA)
• Bronze - Alessandra Perilli (SMR)

Men's trap

• Gold - Jiri Liptak (CZE)
• Silver - David Kostelecky (CZE)
• Bronze - Matthew Coward-Holley (GBR) 

Mixed team trap

• Gold: Fernandez/Galvez (ESP)
• Silver: Berti/Perilla (ITA)
• Bronze: Burrows/Bernau (USA)

Which countries are favored heading into Olympic shooting?

The U.S. is once again entering the tournament as a medal contender, and the nation's history backs that up. The U.S. has almost twice as many shooting medals at the Olympics as any other nation. However, it hasn’t led the medal count since the 1984 Games, the same year China qualified its first shooting athletes at the Olympics — meaning China is also a favorite to win gold at the Olympics. 

India is also emerging as a medal contender. The nation has four Olympic shooting medals – one per Games from 2004 to 2016. Although India is not considered a historic powerhouse, they’ve established themselves as a contender on the world stage, most recently winning 14 medals at the 2023 World Championships, behind only China and Ukraine. Of those 14 medals, only three were in Olympic events, but representatives from USA Shooting said they consider India to be one of their top challengers going forward.

What’s the outlook for U.S. shooters at the Paris Olympics?

The U.S. already has secured 18 qualification spots for the Pairs Games. Vincent Hancock will look to make Olympic history for the U.S. by becoming one of six Americans with four or more gold medals in the sport if he wins gold this summer. Hancock will be 35 when the Games come around and has already won gold in men's skeet at the Beijing, London and Tokyo Games. Now with mixed team skeet making its debut in Paris, he could have two more chances to add to his collection.