COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (April 24, 2019)
With exactly 15 months until the 2020 Olympic Games get underway in Tokyo, Japan, USA Shooting is launching the RAISE THE FLAG campaign. The campaign will serve as the motivational driver used to pursue all available resources and sharpen the organizational vision on the mission of getting athletes on the podium and seeing that American flag raised in competition.
The key element of the campaign is the Chairman’s Challenge being initiated by USA Shooting Board Chairman Chad Whittenburg, in what he describes as a true sense of urgency and directed passion.The USA Shooting Board of Directors recently voted to fund all athletes qualifying for World Cup events in 2019, a decision that means the organization needs to raise $200,000 to support that effort. Previously, athletes were only allowed to compete if they had achieved a Performance Standard Score (PSS), which was the average score needed to make a World Cup Final. With the start of the Beijing World Cup Tuesday, USA Shooting is fielding complete teams across all disciplines for the first time since before 2016.
“I will not sit back any longer without doing everything I can to make sure our athletes have the resources they need to go about raising our flag at international competition,” said Whittenburg, who became Chairman in January. “It is unacceptable to me that we as an organization and shooting sports community can’t rally behind America’s Shooting Team athletes enough to ensure they can compete overseas as proud members of Team USA without having to fund that trip themselves. Our athletes deserve the opportunity to compete and get better without that financial stress weighing over them. We can do better for our athletes that represent America and
