Shooting at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Shooting at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Venue	Beijing Shooting Range Hall (rifle & pistol) Beijing Shooting Range Clay Target Field (shotgun)
Dates	9–17 August 2008
Competitors	390 from 103 nations

Shooting at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Qualification
Rifle
50 m rifle three positions	men	women
50 m rifle prone	men
10 m air rifle	men	women
Pistol
50 m pistol	men
25 m pistol		women
25 m rapid fire pistol	men
10 m air pistol	men	women
Shotgun
Trap	men	women
Double trap	men
Skeet	men	women

Shooting competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were held from August 9 to August 17, at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall (rifle and pistol events) and Beijing Shooting Range Clay Target Field (shotgun events). Of the fifteen events, the host country won five.

Highlights included:

• Two rifle shooters, Czech Kateřina Kůrková and American Matthew Emmons, who met at the 2004 Olympics, married in 2007 and returned to the 2008 Games to win a gold and two silver medals between them.
  • Kateřina Emmons equalled the world record with a perfect 400 in the women's air rifle competition.
  • Matthew lost a large lead in the last shot of the men's three positions - just as he had in Athens four years earlier.
• Abhinav Bindra won India's first ever individual Olympic gold.
• Russian Natalia Paderina and Georgian Nino Salukvadze, whose countries were at war, won silver and bronze respectively in the 10m Air Pistol. They shared hugged and shook hands on the podium, which was seen as peaceful gesture.[1][2]
• The eighth appearance at the Olympics for Latvian Afanasijs Kuzmins
• The seventh Olympic appearance for Slovenian Rajmond Debevec (who won bronze), making him only the fifth shooter to have ever competed in at least seven Olympic Games.
• The sixth Olympic appearance for eight shooters, raising to 22 the number of shooters who have competed in at least six Olympic Games:
  • Canadian Dr Susan Nattrass
  • Finn Juha Hirvi,
  • Italian Andrea Benelli
  • German Ralf Schumann, who won his fifth Olympic medal.
  • Bulgarian Tanyu Kiryakov
  • Monegasque Fabienne Diato-Pasetti,
  • Serbian Jasna Šekarić (competing under her fourth flag at the Olympics without ever having changed nationality),
  • Georgian Nino Salukvadze. She won bronze, completing the set twenty years after she won gold and silver at the 1988 Olympics.
• The fifth Olympic appearance for 16 shooters, raising to 80 the number of shooters who have competed in at least five Olympic Games: Mönkhbayar Dorjsurengiin, Svetlana Demina, María Pilar Fernández, Mariya Grozdeva, Michael Diamond, Franck Dumoulin, Thomas Farnik, Andrei Inešin, Harald Jensen, Kanstantsin Lukashyk, Russell Mark, Sergey Martynov, Giovanni Pellielo, Stevan Pletikošić, Iulian Raicea, Axel Wegner.

The sport also faced its first major doping case, when Kim Jong-su of North Korea was stripped of his medals in 50 metre pistol and 10 metre air pistol after testing positive for propranolol, a beta blocker that some performers use to reduce stage fright and some surgeons use to reduce hand tremors during operations.[3]