The next two weeks—the 2016 Summer Olympics—affords us the rare chance to watch many of the world’s best shooters in action. This year’s games will be the most accessible and visible ever thanks to widely expanded TV coverage and streaming over the Internet. USA Shooting, our national governing body, reports that NBCUniversal, holder of broadcast and streaming rights, will present a total of 6,755 hours of programming, including 2,084 hours to be broadcast across 11 television networks. Exactly when and where you can see elite shooters from around the globe vying for Olympic medals will take a bit of sleuthing, and live streaming may be your best bet to watch their performances in progress. And since Rio is just one hour ahead of the Eastern time zone, the timing should be pretty convenient.
Here are some online tools for following all the shooting competition and results from Rio.
For a handy, comprehensive guide that covers match schedules, athlete profiles, descriptions of the Olympic shooting sports and more, check out this PDF brochure from USA Shooting: http://www.usashooting.org/news/usasnews/USASnews-OlympicPreview/index.html.
For information on broadcast programming and accessing live-stream, visit the NBC Olympics website and click on “Watch”, “All Sports” and/or “News/How to Watch.”
There’s also a mobile app at: https://www.rio2016.com/en/app.
The action gets started on Saturday, August 6 with Women’s Air Rifle and and Men’s Air Pistol, then proceeds daily through Sunday, August 14. All told, there are 13 Olympic shooting events encompassing various rifle, pistol and shotgun disciplines.
There are also some great individual stories among U.S. shooters. Just to name a few: All-time shotgun great and NRA Honorary Life member Kim Rhode is competing in her sixth consecutive Olympiad and seeking to medal for the sixth straight time—unprecendented longevity that may never be matched. Men’s skeet champ Vincent Hancock is going for his third Olympic gold, and rifleman Matt Emmons will be trying to win his fourth medal. On the other side of the coin, newcomer Ginny Thrasher, 19, hopes to add medals to NCAA individual national championships she won earlier this year in air rifle and smallbore rifle. Needless to say, the U.S. team has a great chance of bringing home numerous medals.
There’s no comparable way to follow a sport and pastime that’s important to all of us and which is protected by NRA’s non-stop advocacy for our rights to keep and bear arms. Watching can also inspire youngsters to get active in competitive shooting, a pursuit that will benefit them in so many ways and could open doors to tremendous educational and travel opportunities.
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