Shooting, an important sport in the Olympics
Using guns and shooting have been around for a very long time ever since the weapon was invented. The allure and attraction of guns goes back a many years and people have been fascinated by shooting things and each other for a long time. The modern sport
of shooting seems to have directly evolved from warfare as people decided to test their skills of accuracy by shooting targets as a sporting event. Shooting events are very popular at the Olympics with currently 15 separate events taking place. Numerous countries
participate in shooting sports and the sport looks all set to become even more popular in the next few years.
Shooting is an interesting sport; it is basically a measure of how accurately a person can hit a target. For a lot of people a sport is not a sport unless there is some physical activity involved, but in almost all shooting sports a competitor simply stands
in one place and shoots at targets without moving. Shooting sports have been a part of the Olympic Games since the modern version of the Games were introduced in 1896. There were only two years when shooting events were not part of the Olympics; 1904 and 1928.
The sport was one of the original nine sports that were a part of the first modern Olympic Games which took place. Four years later in 1900, shooting was done using live pigeons as moving targets but thankfully the practice ended soon after that and clay pigeons
were used instead.
The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) was formed in 1907 and is the official governing body of the sport. It oversees the rules and regulations of the sport and also holds its own championships. The organisation holds two of its own events every
four years; the first is the ISSF World Shooting Championship and the other one is the ISSF World Cup. The governing body is not the only shooting organisation in the world but it is the only one that is a member of the International Olympic Committee. The
ISSF has its headquarters in Germany and has 154 member countries on its panel.
At the Olympic Games there are several different sports in the shooting event that take place every four years. Some of the examples are the 10 metre air pistol, the 10 metre air rifle, the 50 metre pistol, the 50 metre rifle, the double trap, the skeet
and the trap. These events are also contested by women but now a days women shooters have their own events. Prior to 1994, when women got their own events, the events labelled men’s could be contested by women as well and two women actually won medals at shooting
when they competed against men; once in 1976 and the other in 1992. In 1992, Zhan Shan won the gold medal at skeet. The interesting thing is that now when the rules have changed and women have their own separate events the number of shots fired and timings
of the individual events have been shortened from the men’s event. Why have they been changed now when the women’s event is separate?
It does not look as if the popularity of the sport of shooting will diminish anytime soon because a lot of people all around the world love to shoot guns. With the increasing popularity in countries around the world, we might see people from non-traditional
countries taking part in the sport in the future. A lot of events that were part of the sport in the past are not anymore, such as the longer range target events like the 300 metre shooting ones and the events that used the military rifles.
Over time, we may see more events taken out of the sport while different events are introduced. In the past there was an event where a competitor would run while trying to hit targets. Now that would make a nice addition to the sport if it was introduced
again. Running while shooting would make a great spectator event in the future, as it was in the past.
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