WTG LADY<>Kim Rhode, age 33, on Sunday became the first American athlete to win five medals in an individual event in five consecutive Olympic Games.
She earned a gold medal in women’s skeet, setting an Olympic record and tying the world record by hitting 99 out of 100 targets. She also became the first woman to win three gold medals in Olympic shooting.
Rhode, who has another competition (women’s trap) in five days, began shooting when she was 10 and is coached by her father.
She began her Olympic career with a gold medal in double trap in 1996 at 17, making her the youngest person to win an Olympic medal in the sport. Then, after the 2004 Games in Athens, women’s double trap, was eliminated from the Games.
Undeterred, she made the transition to skeet and earned a silver medal in that event at the Beijing Games.
She averages 500 to 1,000 rounds a day, seven days a week.
“They have me at 3 million-plus targets under my belt,” she said. “I know at a very young age, I was very focused.”
In addition to being an expert markswoman, Rhode builds and restores antique and muscle cars and is an avid collector of first-edition children’s books, her favorite being “The Wizard of Oz.”
Rhode’s fifth medal elevates her standing in an elite group of medal-heavy American female Olympians, with the likes of Bonnie Blair in speed skating and Jackie Joyner-Kersee in track.
Shooting is a rare Olympic sport known for longevity among its athletes, with competitors appearing on Olympic teams well into middle age. Rhode said she wanted to continue with the sport beyond the London Games.
“It’s something definitely I can do for a long time,” Rhode said, adding that she planned to compete in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. “Right now, I’m just going to take it one competition at a time.”
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