There was great excitement amongst the fraternity of the Olympic clay shooting disciplines – Olympic Trap and Olympic Skeet – for Paris 2024 as we knew we had a good chance of winning a medal or two which would improve the profile of our sport.
We had three Olympic Trap athletes who qualified for Paris; Lucy Hall, Matt Coward Holly (Bronze medallist from Tokyo) and Nathan Hales. Nathan was the one in the end who produced the performance of a lifetime on the day. He qualified for the Final in joint first place on 123/125 and went on to win the gold medal by shooting 48/50 in the Final (single barrel only) which was a new Olympic Record and one off his own World Record of 49/50 from last year. This was a phenomenal performance by Nathan.
So there were great celebrations in “the camp”. But what could Amber Rutter do? She was our only Olympic Skeet qualifier for Paris. We had been waiting 8 years since Rio to see if she could bring home an Olympic medal. To complicate matters, she had just given birth to her first baby in April! It’s quite rare for female athletes to still compete after having children, and very rare for them to be back on the world stage so soon after childbirth. How fabulous it would be for women’s sport and women’s shooting if she could win a medal! But let’s wind back to see Amber’s journey to Olympic success!
I remember the first time Amber Hill turned up to an Olympic Skeet competition. We’d heard rumours a young girl who was very good at sporting had taken up OSK and here she was 12 years old, relaxed and unphased by the most difficult of disciplines. An exceptional talent, Amber rose to the top very quickly, competing as a Senior despite her young age. Two years later she won gold at her first World Cup! At the European Games in 2015, she won gold, beating her Italian rival 30 targets to 29 in a shoot-off!
Amber went to Rio 2016 aged 18, making the final but no medal. Her success continued and she qualified for Tokyo 2020 but a positive Covid test prevented her from going and her mental health suffered. When she finally got back to shooting she worked on her mental game to help with focus and clarity of thought when shooting under pressure. This paid off in the 2022 Changwon World Cup when her gun ceased and she had to use a screwdriver to knock the top lever across to open it, on top of which it was pouring with rain, and she still won silver! What a show of composure and resilience!
Amber announced last summer that she was pregnant; immediately everyone started counting the months to the Olympics! Would she still compete?! She gave birth to her son Tommy in late April and a few weeks later confirmed she would be attending Paris. We all breathed a sigh of relief! We were all very excited of the prospect of a first-ever Olympic Skeet medal for GB! She would need to call on all her skills to help her but if anyone could do it, Amber could! I’d seen her training at a World Class Training Camp in January; she arrived with her “bump” looking very relaxed, shot 59/60 in a mock final and then went home. I’d been left with no doubt that she would be in the running for a medal of some description and I’d also heard the “post-baby” training was going well.
The shooting was held at Chateauroux, a shooting ground, two hours south of Paris by train. The competition was over two days, with three qualification rounds on Day 1 and then two rounds on Day 2 plus the Final for the top 6 competitors. I was already in Paris watching other events but was glued to the Paris 2024 App for the live results of Day 1. Amber finished up in joint first place on 74/75. I could barely sleep that night!
The next day I jumped on a 6am train to Chateauroux. On arrival, I bumped into lots of eager GB Olympic Skeet shooters! We all sat together with our Union Jacks to watch Amber’s final two qualification rounds. We got really excited when she appeared accompanied by her Coach and Sports Psychologist and carrying her trademark Beretta with the distinctive personalised decorated blue stock. We watched her intensely, with our hearts in our mouths, willing every target to break! But of course, we didn’t need to worry; she had it all covered! We kept a close eye on the scoreboard too to see how the others were doing. Amber qualified in joint first place with two others on 122/125. A shoot-off was required to determine the order of play for the joint leaders in the Final and left Amber with Bib No.2.
The final, with pink flash clays, to make it more “televisual”, was nail-biting to say the least! All six athletes start back on zero; anything can happen and anyone can win! They got down to the last three and Amber was still in the hunt so a medal of some colour was assured! The American, Austen Jewell Smith fought incredibly hard and took Bronze, leaving Amber and the Chillian, Francisca Crovetto Chadid, holder of the Qualification World Record of 125/125, to fight it out. After these first 50 targets, Chadid was a comfortable 2 targets ahead of Amber but there were 10 more to go and like I said, anything can happen. Out of the next 4 shots, Chadid dropped two clays so they were then level pegging. Later Amber dropped one but so then did Chadid! At the end of the Final, they had equalised on 55/60 resulting in a “sudden death” shoot-off! The excitement was building and we were absolutely dying in the stands!
The Shoot Off began and both athletes cleared the first four targets, then Amber dropped one, but again so did Chadid! We were on the edge of our seats! They were both on 5 out of 6 targets. Amber shot the next pair, breaking both targets; the second target was confirmed by the pink flash but it was very clear to Amber and the audience and the other athletes that a distinct piece broke away from the first target – two visible pieces are all you need – but the Referee did not appear to see this and called a loss on “that clay”. Amber immediately protested but it was disallowed. We were aghast! We all saw it and we were some distance from the range; how could the Referee not have seen it? The audience began to chant in unison “Hit, hit, hit …” doing our best to influence the Referee; but to no avail. Amber showed her displeasure by giving the thumbs down but all we could do was sympathise with her and there was nothing more she could do. Chadid then very composed and seizing the opportunity shot her pair, two clouds of pink powder hanging in the air, and the match was over. My WhatsApp went crazy with friends watching at home seeing the replay on TV, saying “She hit that!” It seems the whole world apart from the Referee saw “that clay”!
Having been so tense it felt very flat for the final to finish in this way. It was hugely disappointing, to say the least. It wasn’t that Amber was robbed of a gold medal, but she was denied the opportunity to continue to fight for it. Who knows what the outcome would have been; but I do know she had it in her to win gold. She won the moral high ground and behaved entirely professionally, accepting the referee’s decision once there was nothing more she could do; she was exceptionally gracious to her opponent whom she congratulated straight away. But she had the sympathy and backing of the crowd all the way.
For reasons best known to the organisers, VAR (Video Assisted Referee) was not used at this event when it has been in the past. Amber has since stated that she was very happy to win a medal of any colour. Having come back from the difficulties of Tokyo and having had her baby has given her a different perspective on life. But she now refers to the target in question as “That clay”! I’m told that Amber has asked for an apology for what happened and requested that they bring back VAR to the Olympics so this can never happen again. This has to be the way forward for sure.
It must have been difficult for Chadid too as she must have felt it wasn’t the conclusive victorious win you would want. You could not have written such an exciting final or equally unsatisfying end to an Olympic competition. That said we are all thrilled that Amber got a silver medal but in our hearts, we know she has a joint gold!
Written by Nicki Wakeford
Freelance Shooting Coach, British Shooting Talent Pathway Coach
APSI Member, ISSF C Licence Coach, CPSA Safety Officer, Lantra Loader