Shoot for Gold Fundraiser to Benefit USA Shooting Team Headed to London
OutdoorHub 06.01.12
The Lone Star State will be the center of a shooting-style send-off for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team for Shooting, June 15-16. Pioneer Natural Resources, the independent exploration and production company based in Irving, Texas, alongside Fayez Sarofim & Co. will host the “Shoot for Gold” Sporting Clays Fundraiser event with monies raised set to support the USA Shooting Team’s participation in London.
Six 2012 Olympians, including three Olympic medalists, will take part in the two-day team shooting event. All told, the Olympians participating have competed in a combined 11 Olympic Games. Athletes participating in the fundraiser event include Kim Rhode (El Monte, Calif.), Glenn Eller (USAMU/Katy, Texas), Vincent Hancock (USAMU/Eatonton, Ga.), Daryl Szarenski (WCAP/Seale, Ala.) and Josh Richmond (USAMU/Hillsgrove, Pa.). Additionally, one Olympian in the rifle discipline will be added after the conclusion of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials currently taking place in Ft. Benning, Ga.
Arguably one of the world’s most dominant shotgun shooters, Rhode will be looking to make Olympic history in London as she’ll try to become the first U.S. athlete in an individual sport to win five medals in five consecutive Olympic Games. The 2008 Olympic gold medalist Hancock will participate alongside his skeet shooting comrade. Hancock easily earned a trip back to his second Olympic Games at the recent Olympic Team Trials for Shotgun and looks to be rounding into the form that made him one of the world’s best in his discipline.
Eller recently qualified for his fourth Olympic Games and will be looking to defend his Olympic gold medal in Double Trap. He’ll be joined at the event by Richmond, a 2010 World Champion and Army Marksmanship Unit teammate.
Szarenski, meanwhile, will be participating in his fourth Olympic Games as a pistol shooter and will be looking to earn his first Olympic medal.
“This is a great opportunity to see the very best of the shooting sports and participate with these outstanding athlete representatives of USA Shooting and give them the send-off they so richly deserve,” said Robert Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer for USA Shooting. “We’re excited that companies like Pioneer Natural Resources, Fayez Sarofim & Co.,as well as our various sponsors, donors and supporters continue to help push this sport to greater heights.”
Sponsors and contributors will get the opportunity to meet and shoot with Olympic athletes at the event and during the auction dinner on Friday night at the WillaWalla Creek Shooting Center in Saint Jo, Texas. On Saturday, event participants will compete in a 100-bird Sporting Clays shoot at the Fossil Pointe Sporting Grounds in Slidell, Texas.
Shoot for Gold will also be sponsoring a drawing for a 2012, six-seater Green Polaris 800 Ranger that’s loaded with after-market wheels, a lift kit, windshield, hardtop, front-end winch, and stereo system. Raffle tickets are $100.00 and can be purchased prior to the event by calling (940) 577-4898 or will be available the day of the fundraiser as well.
Also making significant contributions to the event is former USA Shooting National Team member Dwayne Weger, who will serve as the U.S. Olympic Team Leader for Shooting for the second consecutive Games along with long-time USA Shooting team member Haley Dunn, who was the 2001 Junior World Champion and the 2005 World Champion in Skeet.
For event details as well as entry and sponsorship prices, please click here.
