Paris Olympics 2024: Switzerland's Chiara Leone strikes gold in women's 50m rifle 3P

26-year-old Chiara Leone breaks Olympic record on her way to winning gold.

Switzerland’s world No.2 Chiara Leone won the Paris Olympics 2024 50m rifle 3 positions women title after a fluctuating contest at Chateauroux today in an Olympic record of 464.4 points.

Silver on 463.0 – the first Paris 2024 shooting medal for the United States – went to Sagen Maddalena, who had topped the previous day’s qualification and led the final on two occasions.

China’s 20-year-old world champion Zhang Qiongyue took bronze as Norway’s Jeanette Hegg Duestad, fourth in this event and the 10m air rifle at the Tokyo 2020 Games, had the bittersweet experience of filling that place once more.

Scores of 8.5 and 8.8 from Zhang in the first of the two single-shot elimination rounds gave Duestad a glimpse of bronze as she shot a perfect 10.9 and 10.6 to narrow a gap of 4.5 points to just 0.3, but she could only manage a 9.7 with her next effort and her Chinese rival rallied to a 10.1 to claim third place by a margin of 0.7.

Chiara Leone had led with 156.2 after the opening kneeling section, with Zhang on 156.0 and Maddalena on 155.9. But the 26-year-old Swiss athlete dropped to third after the prone section, her total of 313.1 being bettered by Zhang on 313.3 and Maddalena on 314.0.

Zhang took the initiative after the two opening series of five shots in the standing section, totalling 415.8 as the competition moved to the single-shot eliminations, with Leone on 414.4 and Maddalena third on 412.9.

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The opening round of single shots tipped the contest Chiara Leone’s way as she took the lead by 0.3 as she moved to 424.6 with an effort of 10.2. An 8.5 dropped Zhang to 424.3 and Maddalena held bronze-medal position as a 9.9 brought her to 422.8.

But one set of shots later an 8.8 had dropped the Swiss athlete to second place on 433.4 as Maddalena’s 10.8 moved her into the lead by 0.2. The lead flipped for the final time in the next round as Chiara Leone’s 10.5 took her to 443.9 and Maddalena dropped to third place 443.0 with a 9.4 as Zhang totalled 443.2 following her 10.1.

In the penultimate round Chiara Leone maintained her lead with a 9.7 as her two remaining rivals tied on 452.9, with Zhang, who had finished second behind Maddalena in qualification, having to settle for bronze.

Chiara Leone had a lead of 0.7 as she and her American rival prepared for their final scheduled shots. A 10.1 took Maddalena’s final total to 463.0 as her Swiss opponent finished on a high with a 10.8 that secured gold and took her past the Olympic record of 463.9 set three years ago at the Tokyo 2020 Games by her compatriot Nina Christen, who had failed to earn qualification on the day before.

Switzerland were spoilt for choice in this event as 15-year-old Emely Jaeggi had earned an Olympic Quota place – and also taken European bronze and established a qualifying world record of 596, also a world junior record, at the Munich World Cup. Had she been selected she would have become the youngest ever Olympic shooting sport competitor.

The defending champion’s failure to qualify was replicated by the respective world No.1 and No.2, Seonaid McIntosh of Great Britain and Anna Janssen of Germany, and India’s world record holder and Asian Games champion Sift Kaur Samra had also failed to make the cut.

Fifth place in the final went to Austria’s Nadine Ungerank, with Poland’s Natalia Kochanska finishing sixth. Denmark’s Stephanie Grundsoee was the first to depart, followed by Yesugen Oyunbat of Mongolia.

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