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.
International Rifle events that occur in three positions are conducted with an equal number of shots fired from the Kneeling, Prone and Standing positions, although the order has changed over the years. Each of the three positions shot during the match has a fixed time limit that the shooter is able to shoot unlimited numbers of sighting shots and 10 or 20 shots for record.
Shooting sports have been included at every Summer Olympic Games since the birth of the modern Olympic movement at the 1896 Summer Olympics except at the 1904 and 1928 games.
300 m standard rifle is one of the ISSF shooting events. It is similar to 300 metre rifle but there are more restrictions on the rifle. The course of fire is a three positions program of 3x20 shots. This event is based in competitions with army-style rifles, and as such dates back at least to the 19th century, although the early championships had a true army rifle event, using the model of the host country's choice. The standard rifle event as such was created in 1947.
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.
50 meter rifle prone is an International Shooting Sport Federation event consisting of 60 shots from the prone position with a .22 Long Rifle (5.6 mm) caliber rifle.
50 meter rifle three positions is an International Shooting Sport Federation event, a miniature version of 300 meter rifle three positions. It consists of the kneeling, prone, and standing positions, fired in that order, traditionally with 3×40 shots for men and 3×20 shots for women. In January 2018, the number of shots was equalised between genders with the Women's 3x20 being abolished in favour of a 3x40 match identical to the men's event. The caliber is .22 Long Rifle (5.6 mm).
300 m rifle prone is an ISSF shooting event. It was added to the World Championship program in 1982, and was based on the English Match but shot with the same full-power rifle as in 300 metre rifle three positions. The course of fire, like in the small-bore 50 metre rifle prone, is 60 shots for both men and women.
Smallbore rifle shooting, sometimes known as miniature rifle shooting, is a set of disciplines of shooting sports. Smallbore shooting uses smaller-calibre rifles, typically chambered in .22 Long Rifle, at ranges generally of 100 yards (91 m) or shorter. Depending on the range, it can either be conducted indoors or outdoors.
The mixed 300 m rifle three positions was an event at the 1972 Summer Olympics. This was the final time that free rifle was contested at the Olympics. Soviet shooter Boris Melnik was leading 1155 to 1154 when the unofficial scores were posted, but the official scoring brought American Lones Wigger up to 1155; Wigger won the tie breaker with a better score on the last string fired kneeling, 97, versus 96 for Melnik. It was the third consecutive victory in the event for the United States; the Soviet Union had taken at least one medal each of the six times it competed before the event was discontinued after 1972. Lajos Papp of Hungary took bronze.
Beat Müller is a Swiss sport shooter. He won a bronze medal in the men's 300 m rifle prone (300FR60PR) at the 2008 European Shooting Championships in Granada, Spain, accumulating a score of 599 points. Muller is also a member of Sportschützen Taters, and is coached and trained by former Olympian Wolfram Waibel Jr. of Austria.
The men's 300 m rifle three positions was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1948 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fifth appearance of the event at an Olympic Games. The competition was held on 5 and 6 August 1948, with 36 shooters from 13 nations competing. Each nation was limited to three shooters. The event was won by Emil Grünig of Switzerland, the nation's first victory in the event since 1900 and second overall. Silver went to Pauli Janhonen of Finland and bronze to Willy Røgeberg of Norway.
The men's 300 m rifle three positions was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics programme. It was the sixth appearance of the event at an Olympic Games. The competition was held on 27 July 1952, with 32 shooters from 18 nations competing. Each nation was limited to two shooters. The event was won by Anatoli Bogdanov with Lev Vainshtein in third, as the Soviet Union took both gold and bronze in its debut. Between the Soviets was Robert Bürchler of Switzerland, earning silver.
The 2019 European Shooting Championships were held in Bologna and Tolmezzo, Italy from 12 to 23 September 2019.
The European 300 m Rifle Championships are special shooting sport championships of 300 metre rifle discipline, organized discontinuously as a stand alone championships by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) since 1959.
Jeanette Hegg Duestad is a Norwegian sport shooter. Her achievements include winning an individual gold medal in rifle shooting at the 2022 world championships, as well as team gold medals in 2022 and 2023.
The 2022 European 300 m Rifle Championships was the 12nd edition of the 300 m rifle competition, European 300 m Rifle Championships, organised by the International Shooting Sport Federation as a stand alone championships.
Jenny Vatne is a Norwegian sports shooter. As of October 2023, she has won four team medals at ISSF World Championships, as well as two medals at European Shooting Championships.
Bettina Bucher is a Swiss sports shooter who specialises in the 300-metre disciplines. She became World Champion at the 2010 ISSF World Shooting Championships in the 300m Prone Rifle event, matching Charlotte Jakobsen's World Record score.
