Skeet Legend From Georgia Prepares For Another Shot At Olympic Gold

Three-time Olympic gold medal winner and Eatonton native Vincent Hancock earned World Cup medals last week as he prepares for another Olympic run.

With the Paris Olympics looming this summer and Team USA qualifying matches in Arizona next month, Eatonton native Vincent Hancock earned gold and silver medals during the recent ISSF World Cup shooting competitions in Rabat, Morocco. Vincent won gold in the Skeet Mixed Team event silver in Men’s Skeet.

In the Men’s Skeet competition, Vincent qualified in sixth place to make the finals. During the medal competition, he rose to second place with an excellent performance before being bested by Italy’s Tammaro Cassandro, who missed just one target out of 60 in the finals. In the Mixed Team Skeet competition, Vincent and his teammate missed just one combined target out of 150 to qualify for the gold medal match. Vincent continued his perfection in the finals shooting clean, leading the American team to dominant win over a duo from the country of Georgia by five targets to claim the gold medal.

Vincent began his shooting career as a teenager with the Lake Oconee Shotgun Team—sponsored by GON during the team’s inception and early growth—and by competing in Georgia 4-H events. He quickly excelled and rose to international elite status, still as a teenager. Vincent won a 2005 world championship in Italy when he was just 16 years old. He is one of the most decorated shooters in the history of the sport, holding a total of 29 medals from various world competitions, including the Olympics where he won his first of three gold medals in 2008 in the Beijing games. He returned to the Olympic gold medal stand in 2012 in London and 2020 in Tokyo.

Shooters from the USA will attempt to qualify for the Paris Olympics March 11-17 in Tucson, Arizona. The Summer Olympics begin July 26 in Paris, France.