By Brittany Nelson, USAS Public Relations & Communications Manager
COLO SPRGS, CO (Oct. 16, 2023) – Twenty two USA Shooting athletes are headed to Santiago, Chile, to compete in the 2023 Pan American Games, Oct. 20-Nov. 5, in shotgun, rifle, and pistol events.
Our 22 athletes make up a portion of the 631 Team USA competitors striving for gold across. Shooting is one of the 46 different sports at the prestigious event that takes place every four years. The entire 2023 Team USA Pan American squad includes 13 Tokyo Olympic champions to include Vincent Hancock, who won his third Olympic gold at the 2020 Games in Men’s Skeet.
Hancock is also one of only four American competitors who hold the title of four-time Olympian. Hancock competed in the 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 games.
Of the hundreds of American competitors, 24 have ties to the military and USA Shooting has the highest representation at 11. A majority of these athletes serve in the Army with either the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) or the Army World Class Athlete Program (WCAP). The 11 include: Will Hinton (USAMU), Rachel Tozier (USAMU), Alicia Gough (USAMU), Dustan Taylor (USAMU), Tim Sherry (USAMU), Sagen Maddalena (USAMU), Alison Weisz (USAMU), Nick Mowrer (WCAP), Lisa Emmert Traciak (U.S. Army National Guard), Vincent Hancock (Former USAMU), Keith Sanderson (former WCAP and U.S. Marine Corps Shooting Team).
USA Shooting is going into the 2023 Pan American Games after a very successful run at the last competition in 2019 where athletes earned a total of 20 medals across all three disciplines. Medalists from 2019 returning to compete in the 2023 Games include: Tozier, Dania Vizzi, Sherry, Lucas Kozeniesky, Weisz, and Mowrer.
Of the 22 USA Shooting athletes headed to compete in Santiago, twelve are 2020 Tokyo Olympians and thirteen are making their Pan American Games debut. See the full roster below:
Shotgun
- Vincent Hancock
- Dustan Taylor
- Austen Smith
- Dania Vizzi
- Derrick Mein
- Will Hinton
- Rachel Tozier
- Alicia Gough
Rifle
- Rylan Kissell
- Gavin Barnick
- Tim Sherry
- Lucas Kozeniesky
- Mary Tucker
- Sagen Maddalena
- Alison Weisz
Pistol
- James Hall
- Nick Mowrer
- Suman Sanghera
- Henry Leverett
- Keith Sanderson
- Alexis “Lexi” Lagan
- Lisa Emmert Traciak
Alongside the coveted Pan American Games medals, U.S. quota slots for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games are also up for grabs at the competition. USA Shooting has already secured a total of fifteen quotas. Each country is eligible for two quotas in each event. The shotgun team finds themselves in a very unique and exciting position, securing seven out of eight possible quotas. If shotgun secures their eighth quota at the Pan American Games, the U.S. shotgun team will be the only team in the world to achieve this benchmark so far out from the Olympic Games.
Rifle has also secured an impressive number of quotas with a total of six. The team needs two more to have their entire roster complete. When a shooting athlete earns a quota for the U.S. in a specific event, the U.S. then becomes eligible to have an athlete compete in said event at the Olympic Games. Athletes are only eligible to earn one event quota in a four-year Olympic cycle.
See all current Olympic quotas below:
Shotgun
Men’s Trap: earned by William Hinton at the CAT Games
Men’s Trap: earned by Derrick Mein at the World Championship
Men’s Skeet: earned by Dustan Taylor at the CAT Games
Men’s Skeet: earned by Vincent Hancock at the World Championship
Women’s Trap: earned by Aeriel Skinner at the 2022 CAT Games
Women’s Skeet: earned by Dania Vizzi at the CAT Games
Women’s Skeet: earned by Samantha Simonton at the World Championship
Rifle
Men’s 10 Air Rifle: earned by Brandon Muske at the CAT Games
Women’s 10m Air Rifle: earned by Mary Tucker at the CAT Games
Women’s 10m Air Rifle: earned by Alison Weisz at the World Championship
Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions: earned by Katie Zaun at the CAT Games
Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions: earned by Sagen Maddalena at the World Championship
Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions: earned by Ivan Roe at the CAT Games
Pistol
Women’s 10m Air Pistol: earned by Suman Sanghera at the CAT Games
Women’s 25m Pistol: earned by Katelyn Abeln at the CAT Games
Support USA Shooting by following along during the competition. Live streamed events can be viewed at https://www.panamsportschannel.org/main and the full shooting schedule is available at https://results-santiago2023.org/#/discipline/SHO/schedule/daily.
Follow @USAShooting for daily updates and competition results.