This Fort Benning soldier, Phenix City resident struck gold at the 2021 Olympic games
A Fort Benning soldier and Phenix City resident won Olympic gold in the women’s skeet shooting event at the 2021 Toyko Games.
Amber English won the women’s event, knocking off reigning champion Diana Bacosi of Italy, according to a report from the Associated Press. The women’s skeet shooting final included four of the world’s top six skeet shooters: Bacosi, Wei Meng of China, Nadine Messerschmidt of Germany and Russian Natalia Vinogradova.
English, who is ranked No. 24 in the world, hit 56 of 60 targets after narrowly missing the U.S. team for the 2012 and 2016 Games, the report said.
English’s win helped secure a successful sweep by Team USA in the event. Her teammate, Vincent Hancock, became the first skeet shooter in Olympic history to win three gold medals.
English is a 1st lieutenant in the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning.
A native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, English comes from a shooting family.
Her father won four world championship bronze medals in 10-meter running target from 1982-87. Her uncle also competed in international running target events, and her mother and aunt were national-level rifle shooters, according to her USA Shooting team biography.
Despite coming up short in the last two Olympics, English finished third at the 2018 world championship and climbed to the top of the International Shooting Sport Federation world rankings with seven top-10 finishes in the past three years.
This story was originally published July 26, 2021 at 2:38 PM.
