Congrats to USAR Team shooter Nick Mowrer for taking a World Cup medal and racking up enough points to become triple distinguished!
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 2, 2014)
There are days in this Olympic world which make you stand up and take notice. Generally, they’re usually reserved for those Olympic moments that define this Movement, or on occasions when chart-topping performances are had at World Championships. But on an otherwise ordinary day, April 2, 2014, will forever be one of those days.
With a proud history, complete with 107 Olympic medals and plenty of World Champions, earning distinction in the laurels of USA Shooting during an ordinary World Cup event, with no Olympic qualification at stake, takes something special. Enter Nick Mowrer.
The lanky shooter who calls Butte, Mont., home did something at this week’s International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Ft. Benning, Ga., that no one in the sport has ever done by competing in a World Cup rifle event. The same shooter who represented the U.S. in the 50m Free Pistol event as a member of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team. No one in the USA Shooting ranks can recall another shooter who has ever competed in a World Cup event in two different disciplines until Mowrer did.
It would have been historical had he just competed, but compete and medal that’s what made the entire shooting community stand up and take notice. Competitive pistol shooters aren’t supposed to be good competitive rifle shooters too, or they at least NEVER have been. Mowrer earned a bronze medal shooting in a Prone Rifle event for the very first time.
Mowrer spoke about the opportunity to compete before the World Cup began: “I have used prone smallbore (rifle) as cross training for pistol for years now and I am very excited to have the unique opportunity to represent the USA not only in pistol but rifle as well. I shoot multiple events, not only prone, but the reason is just the same; I use other shooting disciplines to be able to compete in more matches and gain more experience that I am able to then use in my pistol shooting! It also keeps shooting fun and exciting.”
You know you’ve done something special when your teammates reach out in droves to applaud the performance, and that they did including Olympic teammates Jamie Gray, Matt Emmons and Sarah Scherer.
It moved Gray so much that the reigning Olympic gold medalist in Women’s Three-Position rifle wrote this on her Facebook page.
“Today is an amazing day…our Olympic Pistol Shooter Nick Mowrer broke into the medals in Men’s Prone (yes that is a rifle event)! Couldn’t be more excited for him and obviously his amazing shooting abilities! Nick has now impressed me twice and I have to say these are two of my most memorable shooting moments I have seen. In 2012 O Trials he had to shoot a phenomenal Free Pistol final to make the team and he stood up there and got the job done and now a Prone Rifle Bronze, nothing more to say than AWESOME!!
She’d later take to Twitter to add: “Congrats to @Nick_Mowrer for his bronze medal performance in Men’s Prone! Who knew a pistol shooter could shoot prone (Nick did!).”
She wasn’t the only one who took to social media to celebrate the moment.
@Nick_Mowrer welcome to RIFLE, baby!!! BRONZE!!! Unbelievable!!! I’m dancing here. @ISSF_Shooting @USAShooting
Congrats to my Olympic teammate @Nick_Mowrer on his bronze medal at the @ISSF_Shooting World Cup in Prone!!! #bronzemedaltwins
Collin Wietfeldt @CollinWietfeldt
Pistol Shooters wining rifle WC’s? Congrats to @Nick_Mowrer on his @ISSF_Shooting World Cup USAProne Rifle bronze medal! @USAShooting #Beast
Lauren Phillips @Misslauren5_56
Congrats to Team USA’s @Nick_Mowrer and Keith Sanderson on some awesome achievements today! @USAShooting #teamusa #beastmode
Congrats to pistol shooter @Nick_Mowrer…how many people can say they’ve medaled at a World Cup in a different discipline?! #badass
Mowrer’s medal was so momentous it overshadowed the first gold medal won by the USA Shooting Team at the World Cup when two-time Olympian Keith Sanderson overcame off-season arm surgery to win another Rapid Fire Pistol World Cup medal in his distinguished career.
Even three-time Olympic medalist Matt Emmons was displaced by Mowrer’s achievement. Having not competed since London, Emmons managed a sixth-place finish in the Men’s Three-Position Rifle event. But for someone who lent shooting jackets, gun parts and expertise to Mowrer in his quest, he cared little.
“Nick deserves as much press as you can possibly give him. What a story!!,” Emmons said when told that he’d been supplanted for an NRA News interview.
Army Reserve Marksman 