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| Kim Rhode, 25, from El Monte, California, women’s double trap gold medalist in Athens, has just been named as USA Shooting’s Female Athlete of the Year. |
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — USA Shooting announced that Kim Rhode of El Monte, California and Matt Emmons of Browns Mills, New Jersey, are its 2004 Athletes of the Year. These selections are determined according to which shooting athletes had the most outstanding performances in major international competitions during the year. The program of selecting Shooting Athletes of the Year is part of a U. S. Olympic Committee program that honors the overall most outstanding female and male athletes for all Olympic sports.
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| 2004 Female Shooting Athlete of the Year Kim Rhode breaks a pair of targets in the Athens Olympic double trap final. |
Rhode, who is 25 years of age, won her third Olympic medal at this summer’s Games in Athens, Greece. She has dominated the women’s double trap event during the three Olympiads it was on the Olympic program. In 1996 in Atlanta, when double trap was first added to the program, she won the gold medal. In 2000 in Sydney, she won a bronze medal in the same event. This year in Athens, she again won the double trap gold medal in a competition that marked this event’s last appearance in the Games. This made her the most decorated female shooter in U.S. history. Rhode also blew away the competition at the 2004 National Championships and Spring Selection Match.
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| Matt Emmons, 23, from Brown’s Mills, New Jersey, men’s prone rifle gold medalist in Athens, has just been named as USA Shooting’s Male Athlete of the Year. |
Emmons, 23, clinched his honor by being the outstanding male rifle shooter in the Athens Olympics. His superb 2004 performances began at the Olympic Trials in May when he won positions on the USA Olympic Team in all three men’s rifle events. On the way to the Olympics, Emmons won a gold medal in the Milan World Cup in men’s three-position rifle, a silver medal at the Bangkok World Cup in men’s air rifle and a bronze medal at the Sydney World Cup in men’s three-position. At the Olympic Games, he won a gold medal in men’s prone rifle. In the men’s three-position rifle event, he almost won a second gold medal. He was leading the competition by three points going into the last final round shot when he fired his infamous crossfire shot. Everyone at the Games agreed that in spite of Emmon’s inexplicable finish, he had the best performance that day.
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| 2004 Male Shooting Athlete of the Year Matt Emmons fires a shot in the standing position during the Athens Olympics men’s three-position rifle event. |
Most recently at the World Cup Final in Bangkok in October, Emmons won the gold medal in men’s three-position rifle and the bronze medal in men’s air rifle. He had such a great year, in fact, that he will clearly be one of the leading candidates for International Shooting Sport Federation’s Male Shooter of the Year honors. This is an award that recognizes the overall best shooters in the world.
USA Shooting also named Athletes of the Year in each of the four shooting disciplines. The 2004 Shooting Discipline Athletes of the Year are:
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Shotgun, Male, Lance Bade, Colorado Springs, CO
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Shotgun, Female, Kim Rhode
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Rifle, Male, Matt Emmons
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Rifle, Female, Jamie Beyerle, Lebanon, PA
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Pistol, Male, Jason Turner, Colorado Springs, CO
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Pistol, Female, Beki Snyder, Grand Junction, CO
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Running Target, Male, Adam Saathoff, Hereford, AZ
The Athletes of the Year will be honored at a special ceremony during the 2005 SHOT Show in Las Vegas at the end of January. USA Shooting will host a luncheon at the convention center where it will not only recognize these outstanding athletes, but will induct two new members into U. S. International Shooting Hall of Fame.
For more information on the USA Shooting Team and its athletes, log on to http://www.usashooting.org. |
