WEBVTT

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How and when did you get started in

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competitive shape ? So I got started

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competitive shooting when I was seven

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years old . My dad enrolled me in the

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local JCBB gun program at our local gun

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store . It was an enrollment to get me

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to be a better hunter . Uh , not

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necessarily to be a competitive

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marksman . Um , but eventually I just

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kept shooting after I learned that I

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really enjoyed doing it and I never

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really stopped . I kept shooting

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through college and now I'm shooting

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for the army . What do you enjoy about

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shooting ? The thing I'm enjoying most

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about shooting besides , obviously ,

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the people , um , have a lot of friends

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that shooting . I really enjoy the

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puzzle aspect of the sport . There's a

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lot of little pieces that you have to

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piece together to get your position to

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feel just right and shoot the best

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score you possibly can . Uh , so it's ,

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it's a very mental intensive sport and

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that's what I enjoy so much about it .

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Would you say the range feels like home ?

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Yes , there are definite ranges that I

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would say I felt like home back in high

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school . Our local range I shot

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late at night , got a pizza , spent the

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night at the range and woke up the next

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morning , shoot and to shoot some more .

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Uh I definitely feel comfortable at

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ranges , walking around and seeing all

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the , all the competitors shooting . It

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just feels normal to me .

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When , when did you start to dream

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about going to the Olympics ?

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So I didn't originally think that I was

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going to be an Olympian or ever really

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thought that that was a path I wanted

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to take . But sometime around mid high

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school , I remember myself thinking

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that if I could be one of the people

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who , you know , make a difference in

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their , from their schools or their

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communities and their name gets

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remembered uh like an Olympian or , or

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professional football player or

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something like that . That was , that

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was something I wanted . So my dream of

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the Olympics kind of began at that

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point . What is it about the Olympics

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that draws you to that , to that goal ?

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It's obviously not an easy goal . So

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the desire to become an Olympian is I

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it's the pinnacle of all sporting

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achievement . I mean , it only happens

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every four years and there are very ,

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very few select people who are able to

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call themselves Olympians . And I

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wanted to be to count myself among that ,

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that small group of , of shooters that

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are saying they're an Olympian who's

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represented the US