CAT Games - no USA shooters?

[IPshooter]

Anybody know why there were zero USA entries in Standard Pistol and Center Fire Pistol?

Stan

[Marcus]

Those are non-Olympic events.

[IPshooter]

Those are non-Olympic events.

Marcus,

I know full well that they're not Olympic events. But, these two events are competed at the ISSF World Championships and now at one of our major continental championships. It should have had USA representation.

Stan

[Marcus]

Stan,

I wrote more but deleted it before posting the above. I did not want to speak for USA Shooting, and I am still not doing that. Perhaps it would have been better if I had not responded to your post, but since I did, these are my own perceptions.

USA Shooting cannot spend any money on non-Olympic events. It is prohibited by USOC. Even at the WCH in Munich and the WCHs in previous years, non-Olympic events are not paid for by USA Shooting. While the shooters are on the team they are responsible for paying their own way. If they happen to make the team in an Olympic event they are covered for that time at the venue but if the non-Olympic event happens later the shooter is responsible for all costs for hotel, entry fee, etc.

While I was not involved in any way with these decisions, I am intimately aware of the restrictions and requirements. When my wife shot on the 300 meter team in Zagreb in 2006 she had to pay over USD3500 for the privilege of representing the USA.

The "USA Shooting Mission Statement" from their website,

"Prepare American athletes to win Olympic and Paralympic medals, promote the shooting sports throughout the U.S., and govern the conduct of international shooting in the country."

shows quite directly that USA Shooting must be focused in winning Olympic medals and to do that they must earn quota places to get entry slots for the Olympics. They were fairly successful in doing that this time in Rio. Standard and centerfire pistol don't get them anything in terms of quotas.

In a system that has limited resources that must be apportioned to get the most quotas for the buck, USA Shooting must, I think, make choices on participation. Until funding no longer becomes an issue(?) then some events will not be supported.

You wanted to know why there were no entries in standard and center fire pistol. That's why.

[Mike M.]

I can understand USAS' reasoning...but it seems to me that the least they could do would be to announce that the events will be held, and competitors who are willing to pay their own way may shoot.

Believe me, I know what the costs are like. The U.S. International Muzzle-Loading Team is always short of money - each American competitor in Portugal shelled out about $2500 in expenses. And Portugal was cheap...Australia in 2008 was backbreaking.

[IPshooter]

Stan,

USA Shooting cannot spend any money on non-Olympic events. It is prohibited by USOC.

Marcus,

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I didn't know that the USOC was so restrictive about how USAS spent its funds.

Stan

[IPshooter]

I can understand USAS' reasoning...but it seems to me that the least they could do would be to announce that the events will be held, and competitors who are willing to pay their own way may shoot.

Mike,

I had the same exact thought yesterday. I bet money that had USAS announced they would allow competitors to pay their own way for these two events and sanction them as USA competitors, they would have had full teams for both events.

Stan

[john bickar]

I can understand USAS' reasoning...but it seems to me that the least they could do would be to announce that the events will be held, and competitors who are willing to pay their own way may shoot.

Mike,

I had the same exact thought yesterday. I bet money that had USAS announced they would allow competitors to pay their own way for these two events and sanction them as USA competitors, they would have had full teams for both events.

Stan

Hi Stan,

There was no selection match for the CAT Team, it was a closed-door selection process. As such, there were never going to be people sent solely to shoot non-Olympic events, regardless of their ability to self-fund.

I have repeatedly butted heads with USAS personnel over their lack of support for the non-Olympic ISSF events - support that has decreased significantly even over the last 5-6 years - as I believe it to be antithetical to "promot(ing) the shooting sports throughout the US."

As to USAS being prohibited from spending money on non-Olympic events, that is and isn't true. There are a number of strings attached to different pools of money that USAS gets from USOC, much of which is devoted to high performance in Olympic events (specifically winning Olympic medals). This is as it should be; however, USAS has other significant sources of funding (including membership fees and member donations) which certainly could be put towards supporting non-Olympic events at a nominal level (as in the past).

When I hit the lotto, Standard and Center Fire pistol teams will be perpetually funded :)

[IPshooter]

It's good to hear from you!

Thanks for your explanation. And, about that lotto thing. It's easier to "marry up"! ;-)

Stan