Virginia Thrasher won the very first gold medal at the Rio Olympics

Virginia Thrasher won the women’s 10-metre air rifle for United States to secure the first gold medal of the 2016 Olympic Games.

The first medal of the games will be awarded before noon (ET) in the women’s 10M air rifle (an Indian is the favorite, as India is sending its largest team ever to these games). Her best record on global stage before the Rio Olympics is the fourth place at the ISSF World Cup in Munich earlier this year.

She then joined her high school air rifle team and was recruited by West Virginia University, where she became a national collegiate champion as a freshman this year.

Her interest in competitive shooting was piqued by a hunting trip as a youngster.

What she lacked in experience, Thrasher made up for in work ethic as she continued to improve at an exponential rate. Yi Siling, also of China, received the bronze.

She took her final shot before her rival and, with a score of 10.4 putting herself out of Du’s reach, allowed herself a sigh and a smile.

China, on the other hand, once again took two of the three podium places in this event, just as they did in London four years ago, except this time it was the United States who clinched the gold.

In a little over a week, Thrasher will leave Rio for home in West Virginia, happy to go back to a “normal routine” – an 8.30am physics class, just 20 hours after she touches down. She should parlay her Olympic success into a comic book series or something.

Defying the odds, she shot 10.9 in her very first attempt in the final en route to mustering a cumulative score of 208.0 that set a new Final Olympic Record.

“I got my first deer, and I loved the adrenaline”, Thrasher said.