Maddalena Sagen sits in the top position headed into today’s 50m 3-Position Rifle finals after besting China’s Qiongyue Zhang in X-counts in the Qualifying Round. But those scores are tossed and the slate begins clean for everyone today. She’s Team USA’s last chance for a medal.
USA Archery isn’t faring any better in podium appearances. Here are their results to date:
Jennifer Mucino was eliminated in the round of 32
Catalina Gnoriega was eliminated in the round of 16 on Tuesday
Casey Kaufhold was eliminated in the round of 16
Brady Ellison made it into the round of 8
USA Archery will compete in the Mixed Team event today and Ellison competes in the round of 8 on Sunday. Individual medal-wise, it’s all up to Ellison for USA Archery.
Today, the story of Sagen’s advancement to the 50m 3-position finals and Alex Miceli’s observations on USA Shooting’s performance this week.
This week’s edition QA Outdoors will feature an exclusive interview with USA Shooting’s new CEO, Kelly Reisdorf.
On Monday, we’ll conclude our special coverages from the games and offer some thoughts on what industry figures are describing as inarguable signs things have to change for our international shooting sports.
As always, we’re keeping you posted.
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE
The final of the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position on Friday afternoon may be the straw that broke USA’s Shootings back at this Olympics.
It’s up to Maddalena Sagen, the leader after Thursday's qualifiers in the 50 m Rifle 3 Position, to get the U.S. on the podium, an elusive place for Uncle Sam this week in Paris.
Setting the Qualifying Olympic Record at 593, the 30-year-old Army marksman was tied with China’s Qiongyue Zhang. However, because she had more x’s, or hitting the center of the target, 45 to 40, Sagen took the top position going into the finals.
“I really don't know how to feel yet, to be honest, like, I'm happy,” Sagen said of her position of leading the top eight qualifiers. “That was a very big mountain to climb, to get a big success, proud of it, but the work is not done.”
Sagen came closest to winning a medal in Paris, finishing fourth in the 10m Air Rifle earlier this week.
But her history in the 50m Rifle 3 Position is impressive. She finished fifth in the Olympics in Tokyo and placed in the top 10 in Azerbaijan, Cairo, Brazil, Croatia, Peru, India, and Poland, where Sagen won the 2021 World Cup.
Not being able to fully process her oh-so-close moment earlier in the week when Sagen could’ve won her first Olympic medal, she struggled in his warmup on Wednesday; with poor groupings and having shots off the top of the target, Sagen wasn’t discouraged about it, but it provided a little bit of doubt.
On Thursday, Sagen wasn’t feeling great either. She found a corner to herself, paced, and tried to calm her mind, but ultimately, she reflected on the fact that she knew her job, and she had done all the training and prep work; now, she just needed to execute.
Sagen sat and watched the wind, which was constant at 15mph and gusting up to 20 mph and focused on what the conditions gave her.
“It kept me occupied,” Sagen said of the wind. “Always had to watch the flags I never had the chance to get laxs at all. I was on edge the entire time.”
Luckily, when the gusts of wind came through, they didn’t push her body, and Sagen could maintain control by staying on her toes.
All she had to do was stay patient about when to take the shot, when to wait, and when to fire, reflecting on her years of practice and timing.
Now in a position not only for a medal but potentially gold, Sagen knows tomorrow’s outcome will not define her, but at the same time, she is hungry to get off the medal snide, and this is the best chance in her career.
“It all it's a clean slate, everyone starts from zero,” Sagen said. “And for me, tomorrow is just going to be going through the training, the process, what my shot processes is, my timing of the shots. That's what I can control. So, tomorrow is just going to be what I can control, taking hold of that. Riding the high.
— Alex Miceli
COMMENTARY: A PERFORMANCE REVIEW IS IN ORDER
As the page on the calendar turned from July to August, the hope is the prospects of the USA Shooting team will turn as well. That may be the case with Maddalena Sagen leading the 50m Rifle 3 Position after the qualifying round.
But that’s for Friday. Thursday was day seven of Olympic shooting, and the U.S. has not been on the podium one time, leaving the Stars and Stripes on the sidelines and many extremely disappointed U.S. shooters.
The failure to medal after a six-medal performance in Tokyo, three medals in Rio, four medals in London, six in Beijing, three in Athens, and three in Sydney—well, I think you get the picture—is a murky one.
This forces the fundamental question: what is wrong with USA Shooting?
Ironically, the answer in discussions with shooters, coaches, and the newly minted head of USA Shooting morphs into how good the competition is or whether we are competing against the best shooters in the world.
When the U.S. team came to France for the Olympics, they could not think it was going to be a taffy pull. It’s a given that the best athletes in the world are here. Certainly, there are always exceptions, arguing around the fringes about whether one athlete or another should have been selected.
Catlin Clark and Bryson DeChambeau come to mind in other sports, but for USA Shooting, the best we have are supposedly here in Paris, which makes it even more frustrating.
However, the attitude that "we are competing against the best" as if that is a legitimate reason for the USA’s disappointing performance, makes me wonder if we are approaching the success and failure of our athletes correctly.
Millions are spent preparing our athletes to shoot against the best every day.
Success is only measured by whether the money spent was spent wisely. That is defined by medal count. The only return of investment that matters are gold, silver, or bronze.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a weak field or a strong field; what truly matters is that an American is standing on the podium with the stars and stripes are waving over the athlete, hopefully with the national anthem playing in the background.
More athletes will fail this week than succeed. But most of the American shooters came here with a legitimate chance at a medal. When those dreams were dashed, the look on their face says it all, and it is heartbreaking. You can’t help but feel for a shooter who spent four years preparing for the Olympics and has that dream dashed in a morning or afternoon.
Ultimately, unfortunately, U.S. shooters didn’t perform up to their capabilities over the last seven days, which should be a more significant concern.
No matter what happens in shooting over the rest of the Olympics, the U.S. requires self-reflection and a thorough analysis to determine the best course of action.
Like many other sports, you can’t play defense in competitive shooting, so if we compete to our best level, it should be enough against the rest of the world.
But if our performance is substandard…and while the fields were strong, they weren’t strong enough to set a world record. None have fallen in these games. Logically, the breadth and depth of the field was really no different than most international shooting events.
USA Shooting is on the clock, and they need to do what is required to improve the outcome in Los Angeles in 2028.
— Alex Miceli