50 meter pistol, formerly and unofficially still often called Free Pistol, is one of the ISSF shooting events. It is one of the oldest shooting disciplines, dating back to the 19th century and only having seen marginal rule changes since 1936. It is considered to provide some of the purest precision shooting among the pistol events. The target of this event has not changed since 1900, and the 50m distance has remained the standard since 1912. The sport traced back to the beginning of indoor Flobert pistol parlour shooting in Europe during the 1870s.
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.
Shooting competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were held from August 9 to August 17, at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall and Beijing Shooting Range Clay Target Field. Of the fifteen events, the host country won five.
Olena Dmytrivna Kostevych is a Ukrainian pistol shooter. She is the 2004 Olympic champion in the 10 metre air pistol event, 2002 World champion in 10 m air pistol event and 2018 World champion in 25 m pistol event. She is also multiple European Championships champion and medalist as well as Universiade champion.
Jin Jong-oh is a South Korean sports shooter who competed at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. The only individual four-time Olympic champion in shooting, he is the most successful individual shooter at the Olympics, being the only athlete to have won three consecutive Olympic gold medals in an event in shooting. He holds the world record in both 10 metre air pistol and 50 metre pistol and held the final world record in 50 metre pistol until Jitu Rai broke it in 2017.
Daniel Repacholi is an Australian sport shooter and politician who has competed at four Olympic Games. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was elected as a member for the New South Wales seat of Hunter in the 2022 election following the retirement of Joel Fitzgibbon.
Nino Salukvadze is a Georgian sport shooter. She is a ten-time Olympian, the record for appearances by a female athlete and tying Canadian showjumper Ian Millar for the most for any athlete. Salukvadze has won medals on three occasions, while competing on three different Olympic teams – for the Soviet Union in 1988, then the Unified Team at Barcelona in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and lastly for Georgia beginning in 1996.
Zorana Arunović is a Serbian sport shooter. She won 10 metre air pistol event at the 2010 World Shooting Championships and was later named Serbian Sportswoman of The Year by the Olympic Committee of Serbia. She also won individual gold medals in 10 m air pistol event at 2017 European Championships, and 2015 and 2019 European Games. She won Serbia's first ever gold medal in shooting at the Olympics in 2024 with Damir Mikec in the 10 meter air pistol mixed category.
Heena Sidhu is an Indian sport shooter. On 7 April 2014, Sidhu became the first Indian pistol shooter to reach number one in world rankings by the International Shooting Sport Federation. In 2013, Sidhu became the first Indian pistol shooter to win a gold medal in an ISSF World Cup finals when she won the 10-metre air pistol event. In 2014, Sidhu was the World record holder in the 10-metre air pistol event with a final score of 203.8. Sidhu is right handed and is right eye dominant.
Georgina Geikie is a British sport shooter who competed for Great Britain in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She has won two bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games.
Jo Yong-suk is a North Korean sport shooter. She represents the Amnokgang National Defense Sports Team.
Prakash Nanjappa, also known as P N Prakash, is an Indian shooter who competes in the 10 metre air pistol and 50 metre pistol events. He was the only Indian to win a medal in the 2013 ISSF World Cup, when he won bronze with a very minor difference between the second place in 10 metre air pistol event in Changwon, South Korea. In the same event, he won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Jitu Rai is an Indian Army Subedar Major who competes in the 10 metre air pistol and 50 metre pistol events. The Government of India announced the Khel Ratna Award for him in 2016. In 2020, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India.
Michael Gault OBE, is an English sport shooter. He has competed at the Commonwealth Games on six occasions winning eighteen medals, a record for athletes in any sport that he jointly holds with Australian shooter Phillip Adams, but has never been selected for the British Olympic team. Gault also won two ISSF World Cup bronze medals whilst representing Great Britain.
The men's ISSF 50 meter pistol event at the 2016 Olympic Games took place on 10 August 2016 at the National Shooting Center. There were 41 competitors from 29 nations. The event was won by Jin Jong-oh of South Korea, his third consecutive victory in the free pistol. He was the only man to win two gold medals in the event, much less three. Jin was also the second man to win four medals of any color in the event, after Ragnar Skanåker of Sweden from 1972 to 1992. Hoàng Xuân Vinh took silver, the first medal for Vietnam in the event. Kim Song-guk's bronze was North Korea's first medal in the free pistol since 2004.
Oman competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when the event was held from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's ninth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics. Four Omani athletes, two men and two women, were selected to compete in athletics and shooting at the Games. Among them were sprinter Barakat Al-Harthi, the lone returning Olympian from the previous Games.
The 2016 Asian Olympic Shooting Qualifying Tournament was held in New Delhi, India between January 27 and February 3. This tournament was the Asian qualifying tournament for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, after the 2015 Asian Shooting Championships was stripped of its status after the IOC suspended Kuwait NOC.
Kim Song-guk is a North Korean sports shooter. He won the bronze medal in the men's 50 metre pistol at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He also competed in the men's 10 metre air pistol event.
Elena Galiabovitch is an Australian shooter and physician. She represented Australia at the 2016 Summer Olympics, 2020 Summer Olympics and 2024 Summer Olympics.
Manu Bhaker is an Indian sport shooter. She has won 2 medals at the Olympics and World Championships, 19 medals at the World Cup and 4 medals at the Asian Championships. She won gold at the Commonwealth and Asian Games and 2 bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Bhaker thus became the first Indian woman to win a shooting medal at the Olympics. She won another bronze, becoming the first Indian woman to win two medals in an Olympics.
