When I tried to check out the streaming coverage of the Olympics this morning, I found that I couldn’t watch it without “logging in” via my cable provider. Well, we don’t have cable.
However, the actual Olympics website has a cool feature for shooting sports coverage. They feature the targets of the winners during the final rounds. Take a look at the difference between first place and last place in the first medal event of the entire Games – Women’s 10m Air Rifle. For even the best shooters who read this blog, the “last” place target would be incredible on their best days. For an Olympic shooter, it’s pretty easy to see the shot that made this a an eighth place target.
UPDATE: Want to know more about exactly how these targets are scored? Olympian Jamie Gray answered a question about it from the comments! From her comment:
All the scoring is done electronically. So instead of shooting at a paper taget with scoring rings you shoot at a black dot. There is black paper (black rubber in Smallbore) that advances every shot. There are microphones that read the sound of the shot hitting the paper to calculate where the shot actually hit the target. The shot then appears on a monitor that is next to the shooter. These targets are very accurate. The qualification rounds are scored in full value, so you can shoot a 10,9,8,7…the score needed to make the final in this Olympics was 397. That is missing the pencil dot hole in the center of the target no more than 3 times. The final is scored in tenths of points, where the best shot is a 10.9. So the rings are broken into tenths, 10.9, 10.8, 10.7…10.0, 9.9…this is all scored electronically as well.
Wow. That makes me feel a bit like a loser for finding silhouette hard to shoot. Regardless, it’s all the more reason to be amazed by what our athletes do over there.
In this event, there were no 10.9s shot. However, there were five 10.8s. The interesting thing about it is that three of those nearly perfect shots were shot by the silver medalist. However, when the “lowest” shot from the woman who won gold was a 10.0, you can see why she won the gold.
We thank Jamie Gray, a native of Lebanon, PA, for stopping by in the comments. Good luck in the Women’s 50m Rifle event on the 4th!
That’s kinda cool! Guess they must have to score those things by the milometer?
Better grouping than I could do But I can see the difference. These shooters are good.
The difference between first and fifth is much, much harder to tell. All of the shooters from 6-8 have errant shots – at least errant for that level of shooting.
Does anybody know exactly how they measure these? I think I understand that in the final round they give up to an extra 0.9 for exact location of the shot inside the 10 ring, but if the first 4 shots cloverleaf the middle of the 10 ring and the 5th shot disappears into the middle of the hole, how can they measure whether it would have landed at 10.8 or a 10.9 had there been paper there to puncture?
Or do they hang a fresh target after every shot, these pics are just digital overlays and I’m just being dense?
I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about the scoring at all. If anyone here does, I’d love to know more. I don’t follow these sports at all, but I do cheer for Team USA. I know there are many more precision shooting events coming up. Obviously, with the shotgun sports, it’s easy to figure out how they tell if a shot was a hit. :)
And the people on m4carbine.net will say they could do that at 400 yards with the same setup.
All the scoring is done electronically. So instead of shooting at a paper taget with scoring rings you shoot at a black dot. There is black paper (black rubber in Smallbore) that advances every shot. There are microphones that read the sound of the shot hitting the paper to calculate where the shot actually hit the target. The shot then appears on a monitor that is next to the shooter. These targets are very accurate. The qualification rounds are scored in full value, so you can shoot a 10,9,8,7…the score needed to make the final in this Olympics was 397. That is missing the pencil dot hole in the center of the target no more than 3 times. The final is scored in tenths of points, where the best shot is a 10.9. So the rings are broken into tenths, 10.9, 10.8, 10.7…10.0, 9.9…this is all scored electronically as well. Hopefully this explains more about the scoring. Thanks for being interested in the sport! -Jamie Gray, USA Olympic Team 2008, 2012
It’s just flat awesome that an Olympic athlete would take time out of her busy schedule to answer noob questions from even casual fans. Good luck next weekend.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/487732-Comcast_Opens_Free_Wi_Fi_To_Push_Olympics_TV_Everywhere_Access.php
Thanks for the information. I wish I had known earlier this morning so I could have gone up to the car dealership to watch Kim Rhode kick ass and take names on the iPad. Or the SEPTA station – that’s kinda weird. But, maybe I’ll go up there for another sport later on in the games. At least at the SEPTA station, I could sit in the car and keep it plugged in.
Simply wow, some people just don’t understand how difficult this is to do. Through high school I shot three position competition and know how difficult it really is! It all comes down to millimeters…while shooting in the standing position!! Its crazy how great these shooters really are.
Great to read how this actually works, thanks Jamie Gray! I’ll be watching all of the shooting events! Wish I woulda stuck to shooting after hs.