Army sends shooters to Olympics

Six soldiers, all members of the Army's Marksmanship Unit, will compete for the United States in next month's Summer Games in Beijing.

FORT BENNING, Ga. -- U.S. Army sharpshooter Pfc. Vincent Hancock raises his shotgun and fluidly traces the arc of two clay targets hurtling across the range before him at 55 mph, breaking each one with flawless accuracy.

The 19-year-old skeet competitor, headed to his first Olympics next month, knows that he must sustain that perfection to clinch a gold medal. But after setting a world record at the World Cup Italy championship in Milan in June 2007, the young marksman is confident that target is within reach.
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Hancock is one of six marksmen the Army is sending to the Summer Olympics, and the soldiers are expected to prove a core strength of the U.S. teams. Since its creation in 1956, Army Marksmanship Unit members have won more than 40 world championships and 22 Olympic medals, more than half of the U.S. total in shooting in that time. Prospects are good for more medals this year; for example, the U.S. double-trap team boasts three soldiers in the top 12 rankings, including two in the top five.

Three of the Olympic marksmen are on the shotgun team: Hancock in skeet, where competitors fire at targets thrown from high and low houses, and Spec. Walton Glenn Eller III and Spec. Jeffrey G. Holguin in double trap, where marksmen shoot at two clay targets thrown simultaneously from an underground bunker.

Another two soldiers -- Sgt. 1st Class Jason A. Parker and Maj. Michael E. Anti -- are on the international rifle team, and Sgt. 1st Class Daryl L. Szarenski is on the international pistol team.

A veteran Olympian, Eller, 26, says the Army team has also assigned a "mental coach" to train the competitors in the critical psychological skills of successful shooting. Eller, who took part in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, is working on ways to keep his mind from getting in the way of his performance.

"Your mind is the biggest part of it. We all know how to shoot," said Eller, of Katy, Tex., who started his marksmanship career in 1990 at the age 8. "I like to put a song in my head . . . it basically lets your subconscious take over," he said, noting that he uses specific songs for different situations.

Read the article here. We wish our soldier-competitors, and all our athletes, much Olympic success next month!