Olympic spirit: 6 News Daybreak gives skeet & trap shooting a try

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Men and women teams are going head-to-head in skeet and trap shooting for the first time during the Olympic Games.

Shooting has been a part of the Olympics for more than 120 years, but just as a men’s sport. The women’s sporting events were added 88 years later.

However, for the Tokyo Olympics this year, mixed-gender events were added.

Naturally, 6 News sent the Daybreak team to try it themselves. It yielded mixed results.

“There’s plenty of women that can outshoot plenty of men, so I think it’s cool,” Ryan Glow, the range supervisor for the City of Omaha said. “It’s cool to see that and it’s great to cherry-pick your men and your women and just say, here’s our best on the team whether they’re men or women.”

For some of our Daybreak squad, it was the first time shooting a shotgun. Meanwhile, others found their stride towards the end of our outing.

But most of the shooters you see in the Olympics have been at it for a lot longer.

“A lot of people are starting, 10, 11, 12. Just once they can pick up a shotgun and handle it all, they start shooting,” Glow said.

Glow has been shooting competitively for 17 years. He’s a national champion and it goes without saying a lot better than we are.

Olympians also have a few extra challenges when they raise their shotguns.

“So they have to start down here,” Glow said. “And then they have a delay, so when I’m calling for the target and you’re immediately pulling it. In the Olympics, they can have either 0 to 3-second delay.”

Glow hopes that when people watch skeet or trap shooting in the Olympics, it inspires them to give it a go.

“You know, people watching out, I hope they say ‘Hey that looks fun, let’s go try it,’” Glow said.

While none of our Daybreak shooters walked away feeling like Olympians, we walked away with a new appreciation for the sport.

“I think it’s a lot like my golf game, started out strong and got worse as the day went on,” Clay Ostarly said. “But this guy!” (Pointing to Dave Zawalinski)

“I mean it was: pull, shoot, hit. Pull, shoot, hit. Pull, shoot, hit. Like over and over and over. It was easy,” Zawalinski said.

“I had high hopes. Those hopes diminished quickly,” Danielle Avitable said.

U.S. skeet shooters Amber English and Vincent Hancock both got the gold on Monday.

Skeet shooting events go throughout the week and then Friday, the trap mixed team pre-event training kicks off.

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