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Ralf Schumann

Ralf Schumann
Personal information
Nationality  Germany
Born (1962-06-10) June 10, 1962 (age 54)
Meissen
Height 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight 72 kg (159 lb)
Sport
Sport Shooting
Event(s) 25 metre rapid fire pistol

Ralf Schumann (born June 10, 1962) is a German 25 m Rapid Fire Pistol shooter. He is a three-time Olympic Champion and twice the World Champion. One of the most decorated shooters of the modern era, he is the first of two sport shooters to have won three Olympic gold medals in one individual event (25 metre rapid fire pistol) and became the first of three sport shooters to have won three Olympic individual gold medals. He won the gold medals for the 25 metre rapid fire pistol event at the 1992, 1996 and 2004 Olympics and also won two silver medals at this event, becoming the most successful Olympic shooter at this event. Schumann has participated in seven consecutive Olympic Games since 1988, setting a new record for most Olympic appearances by a German athlete.

His international breakthrough came in the years before the Seoul Olympics in 1988, where he was considered the most likely winner. However, he was beaten by Afanasijs Kuzmins of the Soviet Union (later Latvia) by 598 to 597 in the qualification round, and was not allowed to enter the finals, where Kuzmins achieved a perfect 100. After this, the targets were changed, lowering results considerably, but Schumann's hegemony has only increased. He won the 1990 World Championships and the 1992 Olympics. He scored 596 points on several occasions before raising the World Record to 597 in 1995, which he equalled in 2000. After the major rule change in 2005, he beat the world record again with 588 points, bettered by Sergei Alifirenko later the same year. He also held the pre-2005 final World Record and the Olympic records (from 1996), excelling in the four-second final shooting.


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Wikipedia

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