After four Olympic gold medals, Port Charlotte native Vincent Hancock settles for a silver in 2024.
Italy edged the United States 45-44 on Monday in the final of the first Olympic mixed team skeet competition, the first time U.S. shooter Hancock has won a medal of any color other than gold in an Olympic career going back to 2008.
Italy’s Gabriele Rossetti and Diana Bacosi, both individual skeet gold medalists in 2016, needed to hit at least seven of their last eight targets to win the gold medal and avoid a shoot-off.
Rossetti missed one of his four — after hitting 20 targets in a row — but Bacosi closed out the contest with four hits to win the last shooting event of the Paris Olympics.
“We are absolutely delighted,” Bacosi said. “We have worked a lot and fought for this medal, but we also had fun.”
Hancock was born in Port Charlotte but moved to Georgia as a guild and now lives in Texas. He is also a coach and was shooting alongside his student, Austen Smith, who won the women’s individual skeet bronze Sunday.
“The big thing is we have both had some pretty emotional days these last couple of days, winning our individual medals,” Hancock said. Smith “has just come off a super-emotional day yesterday and I am just so proud of her for hanging in there for me today. I was trying to do the best I could do – that’s all we can ever do.”
Hancock was aiming for his fifth career gold medal and second of the 2024 Olympics. It followed his victory in the men’s individual skeet which helped him become one of just six Olympians to win the same event four times. No Olympic shooter has won five career gold medals since 1924.
The Italians led team qualification Monday with 149 hits from 150 shots, equaling the world record, and the U.S. had 148 for second place. Rosetti and Hancock posted the only two perfect scores of 75.
China’s Jiang Yiting and Lyu Jianlin won the bronze medal 44-43 against India’s Maheshwari Chauhan and Anantjeet Singh Naruka.
The first mixed team skeet competition replaced the mixed team trap competition which was on the Olympic program in Tokyo three years ago.
Also Monday, China won its fifth shooting gold medal of the Paris Games when Li Yuehong took a commanding victory in the men’s 25-meter rapid fire pistol final.
Li finished with 32 hits, including all five targets on his last sequence, to win by seven shots from South Korea’s Cho Yeong-jae. Wang Xinjie of China took bronze. That completed China’s sweep of the four men’s pistol and rifle events at the Games.