Shooting as a sport tests the accuracy, precision and speed of the shooter. When the Olympic Games were resurrected in 1896, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is considered to be the founder of modern Olympics, contributed to the inclusion of shooting events at the Games. However, women first started competing in Olympic shooting only in 1968 and until 1980, they competed against men. It was only in the 1984 Olympics that there was a distinct program for women comprising of 3 events.

There are nine shooting disciplines at the Summer Olympics, they have been explained below:

Rifle:

Rifles are long shoulder firearms which require two-hand hold. The events include:

50 meter rifle three positions (men and women)
50 meter rifle prone (men)10 meter air rifle (men and women)
In the 10m event, the shots are fired from a standing position. Each participant gets to shoot 60 bullets in the qualifying round and based on the aggregate scores the top 8 advance to the final. In the finals, elimination method is used to remove the lowest-scoring competitors as the tournament proceeds. In the final shots just two competitors compete for the gold medal.
In the 50m rifle event which is available to both men and women, shots are fired from standing, kneeling and prone positions using a single-load rifle. Men fire 40 and women 20 shots at each position during the qualification round and the top 8 proceed to an elimination based final round with 15 shots at each position.

Pistol:

Pistols or handguns are smaller guns used for shorter ranges. The events include:

50 meter pistol (men)
25 meter rapid fire pistol (men and women)
10 meter air pistol (men and women)
Pistol competitions take place at indoor shooting ranges. In the 10m event, each participant gets to shoot 60 bullets in the qualifying round and based on the aggregate scores the top 8 advance to the final, where an elimination process similar to the rifles event is followed.
In the 25m category there is a distinct structure for the men’s and women’s event. The men’s qualification round consists of 6 sets of 5 shots that are fired in quick succession. The top 8 advance to the elimination round after two qualifying rounds of 30 shots each. For women, the first qualifying round is a precision test and 30 single shots are fired at the target. The second qualifying round involves shooting 30 rapid-fire rounds.
In olympics, the 50m event is only open to male competitors and is similar to the 10m competition.

Shotgun:

Shotguns are a double barreled smoothbore shoulder weapon. The events include:

Trap (men and women)
Double trap (men)
Skeet (men and women)
Shotgun events take place outside, therefore, weather may have an impact on the competition. In the trap event, the participants don’t know the direction and angle of the target as moving discs are used as targets, they are launched in the air and the participants are permitted only two shots per target. Men have 5 and women have 3 rounds for qualification. The top 6 scorers advance to the final round of 25 discs.

In the Skeet event, participants take a shot at clay targets from eight different stations. The clays fly in from two spots called a ‘house’ located on the left (high house) and right (low house) end of the shooting range. The clay flying from the high house is called ‘mark’ and that from the low house is called ‘pull’. The participants take 25 shots each in five rounds over a period of three days, with the top 6 shooters moving on to the medal round.

Scoring

All the shooting events have a similar scoring methodology, players are awarded points for accuracy. In the stagnant shooting events, the maximum points that are ten are awarded for bullseye. Thereafter a point is reduced as we move on to the outer rings. A shot which hits the target completely inside a particular scoring ring is called a pure shot, whereas a shot which crosses the line of a scoring ring is a cut shot, these shots count for the highest number ring they have entered, even if the shot partially crosses the line.

Rules

The following are some basic rules of the sport:

• The ties in the qualification round are resolved as per the ISSF Rules, which change from event to event.
• In the final stages of Rifle and Pistol events shoot offs are used to break ties. In the Shotgun events during the elimination round for the 6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd place the ties are broken using the qualification scores and shoot-offs for gold and silver medals.
• A shooter may object to the points awarded to a shot by filing a score protest. However, a two-point penalty will be applied if this is rejected.

Shooting in India

Established in 1951, the National Rifle Association of India is the governing body for the Sport in the country. Shooting has been a very important sport for India at the Olympics as four out of the thirty five Olympic medals have come from shooting.

• Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the men's double trap event. He had already won a gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games followed by a bronze at the 2003 World Championships.
• Abhinav Bindra won a historic Gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in men’s 10m air rifle event, it remains India’s first and only individual Olympic gold. In his final attempt, he shot an almost perfect 10.8 to bag the gold medal.
• At the 2012 London Olympics, Vijay Kumar won a silver in men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event and Gagan Narang clinched a bronze in men’s 10m air rifle event.