Hillsdale College to Host 2022 Rifle Junior Olympic Championships

[USA Shooting]

Hillsdale College to Host 2022 Rifle Junior Olympic Championships
After a successful 2021 USA Shooting Rifle National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships (NJOSC), Hillsdale College announced today they will co-host the 2022 Rifle Junior Olympic Championships May 18-22, 2022 in Hillsdale, Michigan once again.

Last year’s Rifle NJOSC was the first of many USA Shooting competitions held at Hillsdale College including Shotgun National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships, Shotgun Nationals, and a Shotgun Junior Olympic Development Camp all at the state-of-the-art John Anthony Halter Shooting Sports Center.

“In 2021, we saw our largest Rifle Junior Olympic Championships ever at Hillsdale College,” said Breanne Orey, USA Shooting Director of Competitions. “The event was highly successful, and the feedback was positive. We look forward to working with our partners at Hillsdale to host 2022 Rifle NJOSC with collaboration from CMP again this year as well."

Rifle NJOSC saw 438 competitors from 44 states compete in both air rifle and smallbore rifle events, Olympic and Paralympic-style shooting, in the Bierman Center, in the heart of Hillsdale College’s campus. This year’s event is expected to be even more exciting, building off the momentum of the inaugural Rifle NJOSC held at Hillsdale College, and will be the largest USA Shooting event of 2022.

The USA Shooting National Junior Olympic competitions provide an opportunity to win the coveted Junior Olympic title, and also offer the publicity and exposure necessary for future shooting opportunities with USA Shooting, college, and beyond. Last year’s winners Will Shaner and Mary Tucker went on to win Olympic gold and silver medals respectively, while Derek Keiser and Molly McGhin added to Team USA’s 21-total medal count at Junior World Championships earlier this year in Lima, Peru. All four of last year’s winners are currently competing as rifle athletes on top-ranked NCAA teams across the country.

The first day of record fire for this Championships will be May 19, which will be used to determine the junior categories of the competitors. As a reminder, the junior categories are now titled U21 (J1), U18 (J2), and U15 (J3). Your age category may change from your State JO to the National JO Championships so we will be using one cover-all automatic score this year; however, we still plan to invite competitors in all junior categories until range capacity is full as we have done in previous years. The automatic scores this year are:

AIR RIFLE: 580

SMALLBORE RIFLE: 575

Junior athletes should plan to compete in a State JO in order to qualify for an invitation to the National Junior Olympic Championships. All interested juniors should reach out to their respective state match hosts for more information: https://www.usashooting.org/7-events/njosc.

Plans for the 2022 Pistol Junior Olympic Championships are still in the works, but updated information will be announced shortly.