Matthew Emmons
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality |
 United States
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
April 5, 1981 Mount Holly Township, New Jersey, United States |
||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Matthew D. Emmons (born April 5, 1981 in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey) is an American sport shooter.
Emmons started out as a successful junior and has been a holder of the junior world record in 50 metre rifle three positions. He won both the 2002 ISSF World Cup Final and the 2004 ISSF World Cup Final in this event.
At the great championships however his successes have come in another event: that of the prone position. He won both the 2002 ISSF World Shooting Championships and the 2004 Summer Olympics in this event. In Athens, he was very close to winning a historic double, but in the three positions competition, he accidentally cross-fired his last shot and finished eighth.
Emmons's gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the prone position came while using a borrowed rifle. In April 2004, just prior to the Olympic Team Trials, Emmons discovered his rifle had been severely sabotaged in the supposedly secure locker room at the United States Olympic Training Center. The precisely tuned barrel and action were heavily damaged by what appeared to be a screwdriver. "I unpacked my gun and I noticed that something wasn't right," Emmons said. "Sure enough, somebody had done something to it. I shot it and I couldn't get the shell out. I said, 'Something's wrong here'." Emmons said it could not have been an accident: "Oh no, no," Emmons said. "Somebody took a screwdriver and went in." Emmons went on to the 2004 Summer Olympics, and his gold medal in the prone position event, using his former University of Alaska Fairbanks teammate, Amber Darland's, .22 rifle. He never found out who the saboteur was, but said "I'd like to know so I could shake their hand and say thanks."
...
Wikipedia