Kim Rhode Wins Historic Gold for United States - Women's Skeet - London 2012 Olympics - Medal Results

Kim Rhode made history today as the first American woman to medal in five straight Olympic games in the Women's Skeet. She did it in Olympic Record style and, if that wasn't enough, became the first American to win a Gold Medal at the London games.  She got off to an excellent start by setting an Olympic Record in the qualifying round with a score of 74 and again in the final round with a total score of 99, which was just one short of perfection.

The Women's Skeet event is a distinctly more butch event than the Air Pistol event I watched earlier.  Rather than a tiny space age looking pistol, these women have double barrel 12 gauge shotguns and they know how to use them.

The guns are much more loud, with a distinct bang and the shooting is much more action packed, as they are shooting at moving clay skeet, rather than stationary paper targets.  I half expected to see Sarah Palin show up and take down a Moose or something.

While everything looked pretty wet, they managed to avoid the worst of today's rains during the final. A modest, but enthusiastic crowd cheered on their favorite shooters as the skeet exploded in a spray of purple mist.  These women have some impressive reflexes.  I was able to spot the skeet as it came out of the launcher, but it takes off like a rocket and quickly becomes very hard to see.

Results:

Gold: Kimberly Rhode - United States

Silver: Wei Ning - People's Republic of China

Bronze: Danka Bartekova - Slovakia

The battle for the medals was fierce and the bronze medal was decided in a shootoff.   Congratulations to all the medalist and to American Kim Rhode for her historic accomplishments!