| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's shooting para sport | ||
Representing  Great Britain | ||
| Summer Paralympic Games | ||
 | 2008 Beijing | Mixed 10 m air rifle prone SH1 |
 | 2012 London | Mixed 10 m air rifle prone SH1 |
 | 2012 London | Mixed 50 m air rifle prone SH1 |
Matthew James Skelhon [1] (born 30 October 1984) is a British sport shooter. [2] At the 2008 Summer Paralympics he won the gold medal in the SH1 10 metre prone air rifle event.
Skelhon lost the use of his legs following a car accident. [3] He competes in the SH1 Paralympic classification for pistol and rifle competitors that do not require a shooting stand. [4] He started shooting competitively when he joined the Disabled Target Shooting Association of Great Britain in April 2006 after discovering his talent at the WheelPower Inter Spinal Unit Games. Two months later he won a silver medal in the national championships. [5] [6] He became a member of Whittlesey Rifle Club and was named as part of a four-man shooting squad for Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Paralympics. [3]
At the Games Skelhon competed in two events; the men's standing air rifle and the mixed-sex prone air rifle. He finished 18th of 26 athletes in the qualification round of the standing air rifle and did not advance to the medal round. [7] In the qualification round of the prone air rifle Skelhon and Chinese shooter Zhang Cuiping each shot a perfect 600 out of 600 to equal the world record. In the 10-shot medal round Skelhon shot a further 104.9 for a total score of 704.9, enough to beat Zhang by half a point and win the gold medal. [7] [8] [9] On his return from the Games to his home village of Stilton Skelhon was greeted by more than 200 friends, relatives and fans lining streets decked with balloons and banners. [10] In December 2008 he was presented with the Outstanding Individual Achievement award at the 13th annual British Wheelchair Sports Awards. [6]
In 2009 he won a gold medal in the 10 m air rifle prone SH1 and a silver in 10 m air rifle standing SH1 at the Polish Open and four silver medals at the Wheelpower National Shooting Championship. [11] [12] Competing alongside Nathan Milgate and Deanna Coates Skelhon took gold in the team 10 m air rifle prone SH1 at the 2010 World Cup event in Turkey. At the same event he won silver in the individual 10 m air rifle prone SH1 and bronze in the falling target rifle SH1. [13]
Skelhon's partner is fellow paralympic shooter Issy Bailey. [14]
Michael Johnson is a New Zealand Paralympic shooter who won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Paralympics.
Great Britain competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Great Britain sent a delegation of around 400, of which 212 were athletes, to compete in eighteen sports at the Games. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom; athletes from Northern Ireland, who may elect to hold Irish citizenship under the pre-1999 article 2 of the Irish constitution, are able to be selected to represent either Great Britain or Ireland at the Paralympics. Additionally some British overseas territories compete separately from Britain in Paralympic competition.
Shooting at the 2008 Summer Paralympics consisted of twelve events. The competition was held in the Beijing Shooting Range Hall from 7 September to 12 September.
Elizabeth "Libby" Dudley Kosmala, OAM is an Australian shooter with paraplegia. She represented Australia at twelve Paralympics from 1972 to 2016, and won thirteen medals, nine of them gold.
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Shooting at the 2012 Summer Paralympics consisted of twelve events. The competition was held in the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich from 30 August to 6 September.
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Peter Michael Worsley is an Australian sculptor and Paralympic shooter. He became a quadriplegic following a Rugby Union match during his first year at university. He competed at three successive Paralympic Games from 1996 as well as the 1994 FESPIC Games, European and World Shooting Championships in Spain and Korea, Swiss Open Championships, Oceania and other International and National shooting championships.
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Çağla Baş Atakal, aka Çağla Atakal, is a Turkish female paralympic shooter competing in the air rifle events. She qualified to represent Turkey at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. Baş also plays on a wheelchair basketball team at a national level.
Seonaid McIntosh is a British sports shooter who became the World Champion at the 2018 ISSF World Shooting Championships in the 50m Prone Rifle event. In 2019 she became Britain's most successful female Rifle Shooter of all time, winning three World Cup medals, becoming the first British Woman to rank World #1 for the 50m Rifle Three Position event and becoming European Champion in the 300m Rifle Prone event with an equal World Record score. McIntosh is the daughter of four-times Commonwealth Games medalist Shirley McIntosh and Donald McIntosh, and younger sister of British Olympic Shooter Jennifer McIntosh. In 2017 she won the Women's 3x20 Rifle event at the 2017 European Shooting Championships in Baku, becoming European Champion. Sister Jennifer had also won the Women's 50m Prone Rifle earlier in the week, becoming European Champion in that event.
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