Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms and bows/crossbows.
The International Shooting Sport Federation recognizes several shooting events, some of which have Olympic status. They are divided into four disciplines: rifle, pistol, shotgun and running target.
Practical shooting, also known as dynamic shooting or action shooting, is a set of shooting sports in which the competitors try to unite the three principles of precision, power, and speed, by using a firearm of a certain minimum power factor to score as many points as possible during the shortest time. While scoring systems vary between organizations, each measures the time in which the course is completed, with penalties for inaccurate shooting.
The International Shooting Sport Federation, aka ISSF, is the governing body of Olympic shooting events. It also regulates several non-Olympic shooting sport events. The Federation's activities include regulation of the sport, managing Olympic qualification events and quota places, and organisation of tournaments like the World Cup and World Championships.
The ISSF World Cup was introduced by the International Shooting Sport Federation in 1986 to provide a homogeneous system for qualification to the Olympic shooting competitions. It still is carried out in the Olympic shooting events, with four competitions per year in each event. For the best shooters there is since 1988 a World Cup Final.
The ISSF World Shooting Championships are governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. World Shooting Championships began in 1897, after the successful 1896 Summer Olympics, and although the ISSF was not founded until 1907, these early competitions are still seen by the organization as the beginning of a continuous row of championships. By this logic, the 2006 competition in Zagreb was called the 49th ISSF World Shooting Championships. These championships, including all ISSF shooting events, are held every four years since 1954. For the shotgun events only, there is an additional World Championship competition in odd-numbered years. These extra competitions are not numbered. In running target, there will be World Championships in Olympic years.
Giovanni Pellielo is an Italian sport shooter. He won the silver medal in Men's trap at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and also earned a bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and a silver medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and 2016 Rio Olympics.
300 m rifle three positions is an ISSF shooting event, involving shooting 40 shots each from the prone, the standing and the kneeling positions. Men and women both shoot the same number of shots, though previously women only shot half the course – or 20 shots in each position.
The European Shooting Confederation (ESC) is an association of the International Shooting Sport Federation's member federations from Europe, the Caucasus, Cyprus, Israel, and Turkey.
The European Shooting Championships are the continental championships for ISSF sport shooting disciplines in Europe, including 10m air rifle and air pistol, cartridge rifle and pistol. Sometimes the competition also includes trap shooting, skeet and running target shooting events, usually organized in special championships.
Shooting competitions at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were originally scheduled from 25 July to 3 August 2020, due to the postponement of the Summer Olympics to 2021, the rescheduled dates were on 24 July to 2 August 2021 at the Asaka Shooting Range. Unlike in 2016, the number of shooters competing across fifteen events at these Games had been reduced from 390 to 360, with an equal distribution between men and women. Furthermore, several significant changes were instituted in the Olympic shooting program, including the substitution of three male-only events, with the mixed team competitions.
Shooting competitions at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto were held from July 12 to 19 at the Toronto International Trap and Skeet Club in Innisfil. The competition was split into three disciplines, pistol, rifle and shotgun, which were further divided into different events. Men competed in nine events, with the women competing in six events for a total of 15 gold medals awarded.
The IPSC Rifle World Shoot is the highest level rifle match within the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) which consists of several days and at least 30 separate courses of fire. The Rifle World Shoots are held triennially on a rotational cycle with the other two main IPSC disciplines Handgun and Shotgun.
The 2016 European Shotgun Championships was the 62nd edition of the global shotgun competition, European Shotgun Championships, organised by the European Shooting Confederation.
The 2004 European Shooting Championships was the 50th edition, of the global shotgun competition, European Shotgun Championships, organised by the International Shooting Sport Federation.
The 2019 European Shotgun Championships was the 51st edition of the global shotgun competition, European Shotgun Championships, organised by the European Shooting Confederation.
The 1977 European 300 m Rifle Championships was the 2nd edition of the 300 m rifle competition, European 300 m Rifle Championships, organised by the International Shooting Sport Federation as a stand alone championships after 18 years from the first edition held in 1959.
The 2021 European Shooting Championships were held from 22 May to 5 June 2021 in Osijek, Croatia. 1,473 athletes from 52 countries competed.
Shooting competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris took place from 27 July to 5 August 2024 at the National Shooting Centre in Châteauroux. The number of shooters competing across fifteen events was reduced from 360 at the previous Games to 340, with an equal distribution between men and women. Furthermore, several significant changes were instituted in the Olympic shooting program, including the new final format and the substitution of the mixed team trap competitions with the mixed team skeet.
This article lists the main target shooting events and their results for 2019.
