Twelve Soldiers from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit will compete in the 2023 International Shooting Sports Federation World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan August 14 - September 1 as part of USA Shooting’s 40 athlete-team.
The ISSF World Championships includes a number of rifle, pistol and shotgun events where more than 1200 athletes from 101 nations will vie for the title of World Champion in their shooting discipline. It is also an opportunity for shooting sports athletes to earn U.S. Olympic Quotas for the 2024 Paris Games.
Olympic Quotas are essentially tickets, or slots, for a country to compete at the Olympics in a specific event. Each country is eligible for two athletes to compete in each event at the Games.
Currently, USA Shooting athletes have earned 15 Paris quotas. Seven of those quotes were earned at prior international competitions by the USAMU Soldiers stationed at Fort Moore, Georgia.
The USAMU Soldiers who are competing at the World Championships (and their events) are:
Sgt. Ivan Roe from Bozeman, Montana - Men’s 10m Air Rifle & Men’s 50m Smallbore
Staff Sgt. Patrick Sunderman from Farmington, Minnesota - Men’s 50m Smallbore
Sgt. Tim Sherry from Evergreen, Colorado - Men’s 50m Smallbore & 300m Rifle
Sgt. Alison Weisz from Belgrade, Montana - Women’s 10m Air Rifle
Sgt. Sagen Maddalena from Groveland, California - Women’s 10m Air Rifle & Women’s 50m Smallbore
Spc. Samantha Simonton from Gainesville, Georgia - Women’s Skeet
Staff Sgt. Christian Elliott from Greenwood, Indiana - Men’s Skeet
Staff Sgt. Dustan Taylor from Greensboro, North Carolina - Men’s Skeet
Sgt. Alicia Gough from Burlington, Wisconsin - Women’s Trap
Sgt. Rachel Tozier from Pattonsburg, Missouri - Women’s Trap
Staff Sgt. Derek Haldeman from Sunbury, Ohio - Men’s Trap
Staff Sgt. Will Hinton from Lawrenceville, Georgia - Men’s Trap
In the events that the USAMU Soldiers compete in, there are three outstanding Olympic Quotas (Men’s 10m Air Rifle, Men’s 50m Smallbore, Women’s Trap) and its the Soldiers’ mission to earn those.
The ISSF World Championship schedule can be viewed at https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/schedule.ashx?cshipid=3085 and is in local Baku time.
Some of the Finals will be aired live and can be found at https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/finalslivebroadcastschedule.ashx?cshipid=3085&fbclid=IwAR3-ae1t2TjVgdrLndQ3rB9Ep1SXHPYHjU5NUOGHqnVBX1S4NUuIHZY__MI. The USAMU and USA Shooting social media pages will announce when any U.S. athletes make it into the Finals.
Follow USAMU on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/usamu1956/, Twitter/X at https://twitter.com/USAMUSoldiers and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/USAMU1956/.
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The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit wins national and international shooting competitions, supports Army accessions, and advances small arms lethality to demonstrate Army marksmanship capability, enhance recruiting and increase marksmanship effectiveness in combat. USAMU is part of the U.S. Army Marketing Engagement Brigade and the U.S. Army Recruiting Command.