Paris Olympics start soon and this Sarasota Military Academy grad is shooting for gold

SARASOTA — The 2021 Mary Tucker might not recognize the 2024 incarnation.

The latter now lives in the Czech Republic with her boyfriend, a member of the country’s shooting team. No longer does the U.S. national shooting team member train daily for five hours, as the Sarasota Military Academy graduate did during her meteoric rise in the sport.

“You can’t really spend five hours,” said Tucker , who turns 23 on July 20. “I don’t want to stand for five hours. Just finding that balance and realizing, yes, I am completely committed to my sport, but I have more free time not being in college anymore to kind of find things that make me happy more so that when I’m away from shooting, I’m looking forward to coming back to shooting.”

And she'll be back for her second Olympic Games as she heads for Paris later this month, competing in the Women's Air and Smallbore Rifle for the USA Shooting team. The competition starts on July 27 at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

Tucker admitted to being burned out on the sport.

“Not burned out right now,” she said, “but it’s a fine line.

“If you can spend time away from the sport,” she said, “when you come back, things make a little more sense.”

'I’m definitely expecting to bring home three golds'

With experience comes wisdom. This Mary Tucker isn’t about to put herself atop the gold medal podium before the Paris Olympics even start.

“I’m definitely expecting to bring home three golds,” said the young, cocky, and exuberant Mary Tucker before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “I’m pretty confident.”

Aiming high: Sarasota's Mary Tucker has a real shot at gold at the Tokyo Olympics

Then she met the world. Tucker shot for Team USA on its 10-meter air rifle mixed team and small bore rifle team. Tucker awoke from her dream of trifecta Olympic gold to a reality of one silver, on the air rifle mixed team. She placed sixth in the 10-meter air rifle and 13th in the 50-meter rifle.

The young Tucker aimed too high. The older one won’t again shoot her mouth off.

“I think the last Games I kind of got ahead of myself, saying I would win the gold,” she said. “Obviously, the goal is the same. I’m not necessarily thinking of the outcome and focusing more on the process. I’m realizing more that I do have the experience and I do have the skill that’s necessary, as long as I show myself that and I listen to my coach, then I’ll come away with what we expect.”

Loaded with experience and success

The daughter of a military father who hunted as a young girl and later rode horses, becoming a state champion in several equestrian events while at SMA, Tucker will remember the Tokyo Olympics as the first time her aim wasn’t true enough.

In 2021 at the University of Kentucky, she led the Wildcats to the NCAA rifle team championship. Tucker was the Smallbore Individual National Champion, the Air Rifle Individual National Champion, and the Overall Individual National Champion. The next year, she again was the NCAA’s overall top performer.

But in Tokyo, there wasn’t something about Mary.

“I remember taking my final shot in the final,” she said, “and coming back to the national team coach and I was, like, ‘Wow.’ I wasn’t even mad that I didn’t medal in this because everyone was shooting so well. Just walking away, I was happy with my performance. A few things I could have done better and I know there was a lot to improve on, but, obviously, I didn’t have as much experience. As much as I wanted to have confidence coming in, I didn’t have the experience to back it up.”

Tucker now has the experience, plus a magazine full of international successes that will precede her arrival in Paris. In 2022 she earned a bronze in the Women’s 50-meter Rifle Prone and a silver with the Women’s 10-meter Air Rifle team at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships. Tucker also brought home five medals from the 2022 Championship of the Americas Games.

“Going to Tokyo, I wanted to win and I wanted to do well,” she said, “but nobody was expecting that. But now everyone is kind of like, ‘You actually have a shot.’ And I’m like, ‘Wow, I do.’ That’s really scary.”

Paris Olympics shooting events

At the Olympics, the 15 shooting events will be divided into rifle, pistol, and shotgun groups. The rifle and pistol portions are held on shooting ranges, where competitors aim at targets at distances of 10, 25, and 50 meters. In shotgun, shooters aim at clay targets propelled at different angles and directions.

When Tucker competes in the 10-meter air rifle, the target will measure just 1.79 inches in diameter. Competitors must fire 60 shots within 75 minutes. In Smallbore, they must shoot 40 shots from prone, standing, and kneeling positions with a .22 caliber rifle, at a target measuring about six inches in diameter, within two hours, 45 minutes.

“It could come down to a decimal point,” Tucker said. “If you just barely miss, you could be out of the medal.”

However Tucker does in Paris, she knows she’s not in Kentucky anymore.

“I’m not in college anymore,” she said. “I have to make money now, find somewhere to live. But you know what? Those are problems for after Paris.”

Problems a gold medal would lessen.

Or three.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Paris Olympics start soon and this Sarasota Military Academy grad is shooting for gold