Fort Benning, GA -(AmmoLand.com)- Jazmin Almlie-Ryan may be the most excited person not to win a medal today at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Shooting World Cup in Fort Benning, Georgia.
“I just won a quota for Rio! Go USA!” Almlie-Ryan screamed excitedly following her R4 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2) match. “I went into the Final absolutely as relaxed as I could have been. Unfortunately the Final didn’t go too fantastic – had a few body issues – but I’ve never had so much fun going into a Final. Usually my nerves are like ‘Oh my God, Jaz, what are you going to do?’ but forget that, I just won a quota!”
A quota spot is essentially the entry ticket necessary for a country to compete in Paralympic Games competition. An athlete can win only one quota for his/her country. Quota spots are then awarded to the next eligible athlete in the rankings, and thus Almlie-Ryan won the available quota.
USA Shooting athletes winning Paralympic quotas will be selected for the 2016 Paralympic Games through a separate selection procedure. Prior to today, Michael Tagliapietra (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin), McKenna Dahl (Arlington, Washington) and John Joss (U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit/Corsicana, Texas) had earned Paralympic quotas. For more information on the USA Shooting Paralympic Team selection process, please visit https://www.usashooting.org/12-
Almlie-Ryan (Houston, Texas, pictured) finished Qualification in fifth place with a score of 627.5. Once in the Final, she was the first athlete eliminated and finished in eighth place.
“I achieved my number one dream three months ago when I gave birth to my daughter,” said Almlie Ryan, who gave birth to her first child, Rebekah, in July. “I trained at the end of my pregnancy and came back just three weeks after giving birth with a thirst for doing what I know how to do. Now I’ve gotten my second number one dream just three months later!”
Also competing in the R4 event was Dahl who finished in 24th place, Mariah Beckham (Daleville, Alabama) who finished in 38th place and Israel del Toro (Cibolo, Texas) who finished in 39th place. In the Team event, Almlie-Ryan, Dahl and Beckham earned fifth place with their combined scores.
Competition continues through Saturday with the R3 (Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1) event up next for U.S. shooters. The USA Shooting Team will be fielding its largest number of athletes – eight – in the R3 event. Also contested will be P5 (10m Air Pistol Standard SH1) with Tagliapietra and Len Esparza (Cupertino, California) competing in the non-Paralympic Games event.
Nearly 180 athletes from 48 countries are competing during the IPC Shooting World Cup for medals and Paralympic Games quotas.
View start lists complete results from this IPC Shooting World Cup thus far: https://results.sius.com/
Events.aspx?Championship . View photos from this event: https://flic.kr/s/aHskk2q3Zu and follow this event on social media: #IPCWCUSA.
For more information about IPC Shooting, please visit their website: https://www.paralympic.org/
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About USA Shooting:
USA Shooting, a 501c3 non-profit corporation, was chartered by the United States Olympic Committee as the National Governing Body for the sport of shooting in April 1995. USA Shooting’s mission is to prepare American athletes to win Olympic medals, promote the shooting sports throughout the U.S. and govern the conduct of international shooting in the country.
Check us out on the web at usashooting.org and on Twitter at twitter.com/USAShooting.