Army Sgt. Sagen Maddalena clinched the silver medal in the women’s three-positions rifle final at the Paris Olympics. Maddalena, a member of the Army Marksmanship Unit, advanced to the finals with a record-setting qualification score of 593-45x, narrowly surpassing China’s Qiongyue Zhang, who scored 593-40x.
In the finals, Maddalena initially led after the kneeling shots with 52.2 points, maintaining her lead with 104.4 points after the first 10 shots. Austria’s Nadine Ungerank followed closely with 104 points. During the prone position round, Maddalena slipped to fourth place but quickly regained the lead with a score of 208.2 after 20 shots.
Maddalena continued to excel, holding a score of 261.2 after 25 shots, ahead of Zhang’s 260.4. After 30 shots, Maddalena maintained her lead with 314.0 points. However, during the standing position shots, she briefly dropped to fifth place but rebounded to fourth.
By shot 42, Maddalena reclaimed the lead with 433.6 points, and by shot 43, she was among the final three competitors, ensuring an Olympic medal. Ultimately, Maddalena secured the silver medal with a final score of 463.0 points, while Switzerland claimed the gold and Zhang took the bronze.
This marks Maddalena’s second Olympic appearance; she previously competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, finishing fifth. The last time Team USA medaled in this event was in 2012 when Jamie Beverley won gold in London.–News Desk