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| Animal & Veterinary Sciences junior Kim Rhode won the gold medal in women's double trap on Aug. 18 in Athens, Greece, becoming the first and last winner of the Olympic event. Photo courtesy of Getty Images |
Cal Poly Pomona's Kim Rhode won the gold medal in women's double trap on Aug. 18 in Athens, Greece, becoming the first and last winner of the Olympic event.
Rhode, an Animal & Veterinary Sciences junior, won with a score of 146, one ahead of South Korea's Lee Bo Na who scored 145 to take silver. China's Gao E took the bronze with 142 points.
In an Associated Press interview shortly after her win, Rhode said it was a great honor to earn the final gold.
“It's an amazing feeling,” said the 25-year-old Rhode, of El Monte. “I don't think it's quite sunk in yet that I've won. It usually hits me when I get home.”
The women's double trap is an event in which competitors shoot at two bright orange clay disks fired into the air. The event debuted in the 1996 Olympics and is now being discontinued in an effort to trim the number of competitions at the games.
Considered the most accomplished female double trap shooter in the world, Rhode was the only woman from the United States to compete in this year's event.
This gold medal marks Rhode's third Olympic win. She became the youngest female gold medalist in Olympic shooting history when she won the double trap competition at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga; she captured a bronze medal in the same event in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
Rhode is a six-time national champion in double trap and came in first place in the 2003 Pan American Games.
Rhode also competed in the women's skeet final, an event in which two disks travel horizontally in front of the shooter. She finished fifth with 91 points on Aug. 19.