Almost a medalist in Beijing. Almost perfect in London.
For Jamie Lynn Gray, four years of anguish was washed away on Saturday.
Gray gave the United States its third shooting gold medal of the London Olympics, winning the women’s 50-meter three-position rifle. Her clinching final shot netted 10.8 points — you can’t do better than 10.9 — and gave her an Olympic-record total of 691.9, 4.4 points better than silver-medalist Ivana Maksimovic of Serbia.
“That last shot is probably one of the hardest shots to take,” Gray said. “And I’ve worked on taking that last shot for four years.”
Oh, it paid off.
Gray saw bronze medals narrowly slip away twice in Beijing, settling for fourth in air rifle and fifth in the three-position event — missing the medal stand by a combined 1.8 points in those events, and seeing what looked like at least a sure bronze in three-position get away on a last-shot mistake. Read more….