Nino Salukvadze secures qualification, set for record 10th consecutive Olympic appearence

The Georgian shooter has three Olympic medals so far.

Georgia's 54-year-old Nino Salukvadze creates history by becoming the first ever athlete (male or female) to qualify for tenth consecutive Olympics. She secured the quota in 25m pistol event for Paris Olympics 2024 after finishing fourth at the European Games 2023. Rio Olympics 2016 champion Anna Korakaki, Antoaneta Kostadinovaand, and Doreen Vennekamp secured a podium finish.

Reaching the gold medal final was enough for the nine-time Olympian to secure a ticket for Paris 2024 as Greece, Bulgaria and Germany had already secured a spot for the Paris Games.

In the nine Olympics Games competed so far in shooting, Nino has won three medals (gold - one, silver - one, and bronze - one). Interestingly two of those medals were won while representing Soviet Union and the other while representing Georgia. Apart from Nino, Canadian equestrian Ian Millar is the only other athlete to participate in ten Olympics Games but not consecutively (missing out in Moscow 1980 due to Canada's boycott).

Nino at the age of 52 became the first female athlete to compete in nine Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020. She was given the honor of being one of Georgia's flag bearers for the 2020 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony, for the second time. The 54-year-old finished her campaign by securing the 25th spot and 31st spot in the 25m and 10m air pistol events respectively.

At Rio 2016, Nino and her son Tsotne Machavariani were the first mother-son duo to compete in the same Olympics.

Achievements

Olympic Games - Three medals (gold - one, silver - one, and bronze - one)

World Shooting Championships - 9 medals (gold - six, silver - two, and bronze - one)

European Shooting Championships - 12 medals (gold - four, silver - four, and bronze - four)