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Olympic history
abounds with tales of athletes who overcame crippling
adversity to win gold medals, but Karoly Takacs' comeback
may be the best. Takacs was part of Hungary's world-champion
pistol-shooting team in 1938 when an army grenade exploded
in his right hand. Ten years later, he won the first two
golds in rapid-fire pistol - after teaching himself to shoot
left-handed.
In a sport
where the bullseye looks about the size of the full stop at
the end of this sentence, a sport where shooters compete
amid a cacophony of noise and still concentrate on firing
between heartbeats, Takacs' achievement tests the
imagination.
From just
three shooting events at the 1896 Olympic Games to 17 today,
the sport has grown steadily. In part this leap can be
ascribed to advances in the technology of firearms and
equipment, which have led to constant changes in the
shooting competition. But it can also be ascribed to the
passion shooters have for their sport.
At the Olympics
there are 17 events: seven for women and ten for men.
The shooting
events are divided into four different groups: shotgun,
rifle, pistol and running-target events. The shotgun events
see competitors shoot at clay targets propelled in different
directions. The rifle and pistol events are held on shooting
ranges with competitors aiming at targets from distances of
10 metres, 25 metres and 50 metres. The running target event
has shooters firing at a moving target as it moves across a
two-metre opening, from a distance of 10 metres.
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