The world’s best shooters are competing for gold in Paris.
The 2024 Olympic Games will feature 15 shooting events, with a wide range of equipment used, from rifles and pistols to shotguns.
How does shooting competition take place and which country is best at shooting overall?
Here’s what you need to know about shooting at the Paris Olympics.
When did shooting become an Olympic sport?
Shooting events made their Olympic debut 124 years ago in Paris.
The event debuted at the 1900 Paris Games, with live pigeons as targets, the only time killing an animal has been part of the Olympic Games.
Shooting has been included in every modern Olympic Games except for 1896, 1904 and 1928.
Olympic Shooting Medal Table
The United States is by far the most victorious country in the history of Olympic shooting.
Team USA has won 116 total medals in Olympic shooting: 57 gold, 31 silver and 28 bronze, including three gold, two silver and one bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the United States has not led the Olympic shooting medal count since the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
China, the second-highest medal winner of all time, topped the list in Tokyo, having won four gold medals, one silver and six bronze medals in the most recent Olympics.
The top five countries in terms of the number of medals won so far are Sweden (57), the Soviet Union (49), and Great Britain (47).
American Carl Osburn is the most decorated shooting athlete in Olympic history. The U.S. Navy officer won 11 total medals (5 gold, 4 silver, and 2 bronze) in the 1912, 1920, and 1924 Olympic Games.
Olympic Shooting Schedule
The shooting event will take place from Saturday, July 27th to Monday, August 5th.
Olympic Shooting Venue
The Châteauroux Shooting Centre will host the shooting events at the Paris Olympics.
How many Olympic shooting sports are there?
The Olympic program includes 15 shooting events.
Men’s
- 10m Air Pistol
- 25m rapid-fire pistol
- 10m Air Rifle
- 50m rifle 3 positions
- Skeet
- trap
Women’s
- 10m Air Pistol
- 25m Pistol
- 10m Air Rifle
- 50m rifle 3 positions
- Skeet
- trap
Mixed Teams
- 10m Air Pistol
- 10m Air Rifle
- Skeet
Olympic Shooting Format
Rifles and pistols
In rifle and pistol competitions, competitors begin by shooting a ten-ring target in a qualifying round. Different sports have different numbers of qualifying rounds.
From there, the top eight scorers advance to the finals. Ring scoring in the finals involves dividing 10 ring targets into a scoring zone of 10.0 to 10.9, with 10.9 being the highest score. The number of shots taken in the finals also varies depending on the event.
The men’s rapid fire competition uses a larger 10-ring target, with only the top six qualifiers advancing to the finals.
The first tiebreaker for rifle and pistol competitions is the highest number of inner 10 points. Next is the highest score of the final 10-shot series, counted backwards by series with full-ring scoring, until there is no tie.
Skeet and Trap
In skeet and trap, competitors shoot at flying clay objects outdoors. One point is awarded for each clay projectile that is hit. To call a shot successful, judges must see visible debris fall from the clay object.
Ties in skeet and trap are decided by a shoot-off. If there is a tie in the shoot-off, the next step is the count-back rule, where the scores of the last 25 targets (15 for double trap) are calculated.
Olympic shooting positions
Shooting positions include kneeling, prone and standing, and each of the three positions is used in competition.
Olympic Shooting Equipment
A variety of equipment is used in the Olympic shooting events.
- Rifle (three stances and prone position): A small-caliber rifle weighing 8 kg (17.637 lbs) or less and chambered in 5.6 mm. A small-caliber rifle for women weighs 6.5 kg (14.33 lbs) or less.
- Air rifle (10m): Air rifles weighing 5.5 kg (12.125 lbs) or less, fire a projectile with compressed air from an external lever or pre-compressed air cylinder.
- Pistol (50m Pistol, Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Women’s 25m Pistol): The men’s 50m event uses a small calibre pistol with a caliber of 0.55 cm and no size restrictions. The men’s rapid-fire and women’s 25m events use pistols that fit into a 300mm x 150mm x 50mm box and weigh no more than 1.4 kg (3.0865 lbs). Pistols are allowed to fire five shots.
- Air Pistol (10m): An air pistol must weigh no more than 1.49 kg (3.3069 lbs) and fit into a box measuring 420 mm x 200 mm x 50 mm.
- Shotgun (Trap): Double-barreled guns typically weigh about 9 pounds and have barrel lengths up to 32 inches.
- Shotgun (Double Trap): These feature a slightly wider shot spread compared to regular trap shotguns.
- Shotgun (Skeet): These shotguns fire a more open pattern bullet and have shorter barrels than trap and double trap shotguns.
Other shooting equipment includes sights for rifle and pistol competitions and shotgun ammunition for skeet and trap.
In addition, shooters wear special jackets, pants, gloves, etc. to reduce the stress of firing a gun so frequently, and are required to wear special footwear and head and eye protection.
