Mettle Earns First Medal: Tuolumne County Shooter Sagen Maddalena Wins Olympic Silver
We stayed up late into Friday morning to check out our July cover subject, U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit Sergeant and Central California resident Sagen Maddalena, compete in the Paris Summer Olympics’ 50-meter rifle, three-positions final. Maddalena was something of a sentimental favorite in her quest to win an Olympic medal for the first time after a near miss in Tokyo three years ago.
She was in first after the qualification round, but Maddalena was in quite a roller coaster ride throughout the eight-competitor final round.
But she also fell to fourth and fifth between surging back into first as the shooters took their attempts from kneeling, prone and finally standing positions. As shooters were eliminated one by one, it became clear that Maddalena would finally appear on the podium.
It finally came down to Sagen and Switzerland’s when the former outscored China’s Qiongyue Zhang in a shoot off.
Ultimately, Chiara Leone, of Switzerland scored just enough on their final attempts to take gold.
USA Shooting got some comments from Maddalena, a multiple World Championships medal winner:
“This is really special,” said Maddalena, a sergeant in the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit. “There are no words to describe the opportunity coming to fulfillment.”
Maddalena, the 2023 ISSF World Championship bronze medalist, had an outstanding roller-coaster of a final. She started off the three position final strong in kneeling and prone where she consistently led the pack.
Going into the final position of standing, Maddalena was in first place overall. In her first series of five shots, she fired off an 8.1 and an 8.6, dropping her down from first place to fifth. After the second five shot series in standing, the bottom two athletes were eliminated.
When asked how she shakes off bad shots, Maddalena mentioned that she accepts making a mistake, knows to not dwell on the mistake, and trusts her process and herself to get back on track.
Athletes moved into single shot eliminations where Maddalena shot an incredible 10.8, moving her back up to first place. Maddalena fluctuated between the top three spots during the single shots and found herself in a shoot off with Qiongyue Zhang, of China, for third place. Maddalena shot a 9.9, beating Zhang’s 9.7, leaving China with the bronze.
Madalena secured her silver medal after Chiara Leone, of Switzerland took her final shot and had an overall score 464.4, just higher of Maddalena’s 463.
Maddalena, a University of Alaska Fairbanks alumni, placed fifth in Women’s 50m Smallbore at the Tokyo 2020 Games, where she made her Olympic debut. The crowds in Tokyo were minimal dude to the COVID-19 pandemic, a clear contrast to the crowd in the finals hall today.
“It was really hyped up in a good way,” Maddalena said. “To shoot a good shot and hear the stands erupt was awesome. It pushed me a little bit.”
Here’s more reaction from social media:
