The Olympic Games may have been postponed until 2021, but that doesn’t mean elite shooters are taking a break. No. They are busy preparing physically and mentally for the games ready to battle it out for a place on the firing line in Tokyo, Japan.

As sponsors of the USA shooting team, .22LR ammunition manufacturer ELEY, spoke to Dan Durben (National Rifle Coach for the US athletes). He discussed how USA shooting makes the important decision on selecting their Olympic rifle shooting team.

“Firstly, quota places must be won” Dan observes. Entry to the Olympic Games requires earning a quota place during International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) competitions. Nevertheless, only athletes who have achieved the Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) can fill quota places for their country.

MQS’s must be obtained at specific events which have MQS status such as ISSF World Cups and Continental Championships. Finally, it’s important to note that a quota place guarantees an athlete from a given country — not necessarily the one who earned the quota — may compete in a specific Olympic event.

Individual countries can only send two qualifying athletes for each event. This is eight of Dan’s team in total able to attend.

Now places have been secured, allocation of the tickets to Tokyo is done through a two part try-out system. Dan explains:

“For rifle disciplines, small-bore and air events are split and each has two separate trial events. Therefore, if you’re an athlete that shoots both disciplines, you could attend all four separate trials.

At the small-bore trial, both men and women shoot the elimination and qualification 3×40 rounds. Then the top eight from each shoot in a final. Over the two-day event each athlete accumulates a score.

The scores from this competition are then added to scores from the second phase. Whoever comes out on top with the highest score will represent the U.S. at the Tokyo Summer Games.”

The process is the same for the air rifle disciplines, except the dates and location differ.

To help prepare for the Olympic trials and subsequent Games, Coach Dan brought the rifles of the elite USA shooters to test ELEY tenex at the headquarters in the UK to find that winning combination.

Keep up to date with all the latest news from USA Shooting and updates regarding the Olympics on the USA Shooting website.