Today we are also going to talk about some "current events", what are the types of rifles and pistols used in the modern Olympic Games?
Recently, the 2024 Olympic Games were held in Paris, so my eyes couldn't help but turn to the Olympics. In 1896, the first Olympic Games (Figure 1 in this paragraph) were held in Greece, and shooting as a traditional human skill was added to the first Olympic Games. However, over the course of more than 100 years, the shooting events and the corresponding sports firearms have also been changing [Figures 2 and 3 below this paragraph are the Olympic shooting competitions of the old era]. As a fan of classical weapons, I discovered that the traditional front-loading gun was actually included in the first Olympic Games as one of the shooting events, the 25 meter muzzle-loading pistol (Figure 4 below). Unfortunately, it was the only front-loading gun shooting event and the only breech-loading shooting event at the Olympics. After that, until now, the breech gun shooting project has not been seen again.
At present, for example, at this year's Paris Olympics, there are a total of 7 shooting events, and there are 3 types of firearms used in the 7 events, rifles, pistols and shotguns. Based on 3 different firearms, we can get 3 shooting categories. In the rifle category, there are the "50 Meter Rifle Three Positions" and the "10 Meter Air Rifle". The pistol events are the 25 Meter Pistol, the 25 Meter Rapid Fire Pistol, and the 10 Meter Air Pistol. There's a special point here, and these two 25m pistol events are a bit special. Because the 25-meter pistol is specially designed for women, the 25-meter rapid-fire pistol is specially intended for men. When it comes to shotguns, there are trap shooting and skeet shooting.
Of the seven shooting events, most of them were added to the Olympics in the 50s, 60s and 80s of the 20th century. Probably the oldest of these is the 25m rapid-fire pistol event, which has been held since 1896, the year of the first modern Olympic Games. Another shooting sport that still exists today and has a history of more than 100 years is skeet shooting, which was first held in 1900 in the second modern Olympic Games. Skeet is also a very old Olympic sport, but the women's skeet was only added to the Games in 2000. In fact, this is not due to gender bias. Rather, it is because from the first year to 1992, that is, from the second Olympic Games to the twenty-fifth Olympic Games, skeet shooting was open to both men and women. In 1996, the XXVI Olympic Games, there was no women's skeet shooting event, and from 2000, the XXVII Olympic Games, the men's and women's events were finally separated.
If we take a closer look at these three types of guns, we can see that the shotguns used at the Olympics are generally the common over-and-under double-barreled shotguns. Rifles and pistols are different, because there are air guns and powder guns.
The first is air guns, which are further divided into air rifles and air pistols. In air rifle, due to the continuous development of precision competition air rifles, the pre-charged pneumatic design is now used, known as PCP air guns. Due to the increasingly advanced mechanical and electronic competition triggers that began to be applied, modern PCP rifles were left virtually recoilless and shock-free. This, combined with other small and practical modern mechanisms equipped with the rifle, allows the shooter to make better use of his abilities in the game. Since the rules preclude the use of magnified diopters and globe sights (Figure 4 in this paragraph), the Olympic Games usually always use traditional PEEP sights (peep sights with a small hole) (Figure 3 in this paragraph), which are also often used in front-loading long-range shooting competitions (Figure 5 in this paragraph). When it comes to air pistols, the mechanics are largely similar to those of air rifles.
For the 10m air rifle and air pistol events, competition-grade bamboo-shaped pellets (diabolo pellets) are used. These projectiles are flat-headed, which also means that the head of the projectile is almost completely flat, leaving round holes with smooth edges on the paper target, making it easy to measure the score. Usually athletes will use a 4.5mm caliber competition projectile, but in order to know which competition projectile type is best for their particular airsoft gun, the shooter usually uses a projectile ranging from 4.48mm to 4.52mm caliber.
And then there was the powder gun. In a nutshell, competition pistols and competition long rifles belong to a .22 caliber sporting type of firearm. Compared to regular pistols and rifles, Olympic pistols and Olympic rifles have better ergonomics, especially the handle is more suitable for the shooter's hand. For the specifics of each event, manufacturers have designed new pistols and new long rifles, such as the Walther SSP, Anschütz Match Models, etc. Pistols are mostly semi-automatic pistols, while rifles are mostly bolt-action rifles.
Okay, that's for today's content. At the end, I'd like to share this year's Olympic surfing spots, which are a bit special to be honest. Because it is set in the famous surfing resort of Teahupo'o, this area is located on the famous island of Tahiti, also known as Tahiti, about 16,000 kilometers from Paris.