Shooting at 2008 Summer Games: Shooting is the act of firing a gun. Shooting has been a regular practice in many countries all over the world in the middle age. However, during the nineteenth century, shooting evolved as an international sport event. In the shooting sports, different kinds of firearms are used. The shooters' shooting skill and speed are tested during the competitions. The International Shooting Sport Federation or the ISSF is the international governing body of shooting.
Shooting in the Summer Games: Shooting was included in the Olympic program at the 1896 Athens Summer Games. The event has always been a regular part of the schedule since the 1896 Games. Only in the 1904 and the 1928 Games, the event was dropped from the program. The shooting disciplines held during the Olympic competition are shotgun, rifle, pistol and running target events. Shooters have to shoot at clay targets propelled at various directions in the shotgun events. In the rifle and pistol events, shooters compete in three ranges - 10 meters, 25 meters and 50 meters. The number of shooting events has increased steadily in every Summer Games. At the first appearance, only three shooting events were contested at the Olympics. Currently fifteen events are included in the Olympic shooting program. Nine events are contested by men and six events by women. The events contested at the Olympic shooting competition are-
Categories of Shooting: Shooting can be divided in various categories on the basis of the type of targets and firearms used during the competitions. Some most common categories of shooting are-
- Rifle shooting sports
- Handgun shooting sports
- Shotgun shooting sports
- Action shooting sports
- 3-gun shooting sports
- Submachine gun shooting sports
All these major categories of shooting can be further divided in various subcategories.
Rules of Shooting: The International Shooting Sport Federation or the ISSF has set the rulebook for the sport, which is followed at international level. Some of the rules of shooting are-
- The structures of the targets and ranges for all the shooting disciplines are specified by the ISSF in its rulebook.
- The ISSF has set rules concerning the safety of the shooters, spectators and the range officials.
- The dimension and qualities of the targets have to be checked by the technical officials before the commencement of the competition.
- The size of target boards with the scoring rings for each shooting event has been mentioned by the ISSF.
- In the running target events, the scoring rings have to be printed on the body of the running animal used in the event.
- In the clay target events, the distance and height of the targets are predetermined by the ISSF.
- Smoking in the area, where the shooting competition is being held, is not permitted.
- During the shooting competitions, no one is allowed to use mobile phones, pagers, walkie-talkies and other devices. Flash photography is also not allowed as that can cause distraction of the competitors.
- Wind flags should be used during the competition to show the direction of the wind flow.
- A number of officials are appointed during the competitions to monitor the event.
Medal winners in Shooting: Karoly Takacs, Artem Khadjibekov, Sergei Kovalenko, Rajmond Debevec, Sergei Martynov, Jury Sukhorukov, Guy Starik, Qinan Zhu, Abhinav Bindra, Alin George Moldoveanu, Vladimir Isakov, Zongliang Tan, Vigilio Fait, Penghui Zhang, Ralf Schumann, Zhongsheng Liu, Vladimir Gontcharov, Wei Pang, Jakkrit Panichpatikum, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Erminio Frasca, Alexey Alipov, Vitaly Fokeev, Binyuan Hu, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Valeriy Shomin, Andrei Ineshin, Tore Brovold are some of the famous male shooters at the international level.
Some of the leading female shooters of the world are Lioubov Galkina, Sonja Pfeilschifter, Sylwia Bogacka, Li Du, Katerina Kurkova, Yinghui Zhao, Ying Chen, Gundegmaa Otryad, Fengji Fei, Natalia Paderina, Jun Hu, Jasna Sekaric, Li Chen, Zuzana Stefecekova, Susan Nattrass, Chiara Cainero, Danka Bartekova and Erdzhanik Avetisyan.
