Virginia native wins first gold medal of Rio Olympics

The 19-year-old Springfield, Virginia, native is also now the proud owner of an Olympic gold medal, the surprising victor of the women’s 10-meter air rifle competition Saturday morning. Yi Siling bowed out in third place at 185.4.

The Olympics began in full with the first gold medal going to an American teenager by the fearsome name of Thrasher.

For New York native Thrasher this was a dream Olympic debut after only taking up the sport four years ago.

“I knew if I made the final anything could happen”, said the happy victor.

Virginia Thrasher of the United States competes during the Women’s 10m Air Rifle Qualification at Olympic Shooting Center at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016.

As a freshman at West Virginia University, Thrasher led the Mountaineers to their 18th NCAA team rifle championship, and also won individual titles in smallbore and air rifle.

After routing Senegal and setting Olympic records in points, margin of victory and assists, the US women’s team next faces Spain at 11 a.m. I was very good about breathing through them and focusing on what I needed to do.

Thrasher won her first medal with an Olympic record 208.0 final total, defeating two-time Gold medal victor, China’s Li Du.

She had a ideal 10.9 in the opened elimination finals, and she was leading as Scherer became the first knocked out shooter. Her perseverance and dedication have shone through and made these Olympics special from Day 1.

Thrasher’s gold-medal performance also resonated with WVU rifle coach Jon Hammond, who is in Rio.

“Some of the [controversy surrounding] gun laws in America is just distracting from our sport, which is very different”, Thrasher said.

“Holding that medal in my hands, looking at it and realizing it is still real is something I have to do every few minutes”, she said.

Instead it was a display of the near-perfect recitation of stock answers _ don’t reveal anything, proud to represent your country, focus, focus, focus.

She began her finals bid with a stunning bull’s-eye that yielded a ideal score of 10.9, eventually outlasting Serbia’s top-ranked Andrea Arsovic and China’s defending Olympic champion Siling Yi.

China’s Du Li, who set an Olympic record with a 420.7 score in qualifying, took the silver with 207.

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

Thrasher still has three-position competition, but it’s back to reality on August 18, when, only 20 hours after returning from Rio, she has an 8:30 a.m. physics class. Badass shooter 19-year-old Ginny Thrasher beat out two veteran shooters to take home the top spot Saturday.

The first gold medal handed out at the Rio Olympics has gone to an American. A year ago, she was getting used to college life.