Personal information | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Birth name | Margaret L. Thompson | |||||||||||
Born | Topeka, Kansas, U.S. [1] | August 25, 1942|||||||||||
Height | 163 cm (5 ft 4 in) | |||||||||||
Weight | 73 kg (161 lb) | |||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||
Sport | Shooting | |||||||||||
Event | Small-bore rifle | |||||||||||
University team | Kansas State University | |||||||||||
Club | U.S. Army Reserve | |||||||||||
Retired | At age 35 [2] | |||||||||||
Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||
Olympic finals | 1976 Montreal | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Margaret Thompson Murdock (born August 25, 1942) is a nurse and former United States Army officer most widely known for her success in international shooting competitions, including a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Murdock is the first woman to win a medal in shooting at the Summer Olympics and the first to win an individual open World Shooting Championship. [2] In international competition Murdock set four individual world records and nine team world records. [2] She is a member of five halls of fame, including the USA Shooting Hall of Fame and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. [2]
My first year at K-State, I couldn't shoot on the team because I was a female. I could practice with the K-State team but I couldn't be on the team. They got a new coach and he thought it would be a good idea for me to be on the team since I was shooting better than everyone else.
— Murdock, reminiscing in 2011 [2]
Margaret L. Thompson was born August 25, 1942, in Topeka, Kansas. [3] While growing up during the 1950s, she learned how to shoot by following her father to the rifle range. [2]
She graduated from Hayden High School, [2] then attended Kansas State University, where she competed on the men's rifle team [4] winning two Big Eight Conference championships and became the university's first female student to earn a varsity letter. [2] The team practiced with 5th Army Rifle Team at Fort Riley, which led to a four-year stint in the U.S. Army, where she was assigned as a shooting instructor at Fort Benning, eventually achieving the rank of major. [2]
Murdock was the 1966 World Champion in Women's Standard Rifle. [5] In 1967 she won two gold medals in small-bore rifle at the Pan American Games and set a world record, for men or women, in the kneeling rifle shooting. [1]
Murdock narrowly missed qualifying for the 1968 games in Mexico City. [2] She became the first woman ever on the U.S. Olympic shooting team (in 1976) and the first woman to win a medal in shooting at the Olympic Games. [4] At the final, her score was tied with Lanny Bassham, the U.S. team captain, [4] but she was bumped down to silver because of a tie-break rule weighting the last 10 shots. [6] Olympic rules forbade a shoot-off, which Bassham had requested. [4] During the national anthem, Bassham pulled Murdock up to stand with him on the gold medal spot at the podium. [4] In 1992 she was named to the U.S. International Shooting Hall of Fame. [4]
Murdock retired from competitive shooting at age 35, [2] becoming a registered nurse, specializing in anesthesia. [3]
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