CHANGWON, South Korea (September 11, 2018)
Today was a busy day for the USA Shooting Team as the United States’ won six medals at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship; including a Junior Men’s Skeet silver medal, a Junior Women’s Three-Position Rifle team medal and a sweep of the Women’s Skeet podium.
Winning her first international gold medal and the newly-crowned champion in Women’s Skeet is Caitlin Connor (Winnfield, Louisiana). All seven of the World Cup medals on Connor’s resume are silver – all coming when her teammate Kim Rhode won gold. Connor also won silver at the 2015 Shotgun World Championship in Lonato, Italy to close friend Morgan Craft. Today, however, Connor won gold, as well as the United States’ fourth Women’s Skeet World Championship title in a row.
“I knew I was going to win after the 30th target – if that makes any sense – so I kind of wanted to cry the whole time!” Connor said, laughing and crying at the same time. “I was pretty emotional during that Final because I’ve never had the feeling during a Final that I was going to win and the whole time I thought ‘I’m going to win this thing!’ I wanted to cry after my third pass through! I just kept thinking ‘Stay strong, focus on what you’re doing, and it will be fine.’”
Connor had to battle all the way to the end in the Final, besting her childhood idol-then-teammate Rhode (El Monte, California) on the Final station to win 57-56 targets. In the Final, Connor hadn’t missed a target until her 35th and 36th target.
“When I dropped those two on Station Four, I’m sure a
