The United States has its first gold medal, thanks to the gunmanship of a 19-year-old from West Virginia named Virginia “Ginny” Thrasher. She won the 10-meter air rifle competition Saturday morning, taking the top prize in an event in which she wasn’t even expected to medal.
19-year-old Virginia Thrasher of the U.S. wins first gold medal of #Rio2016 in the women's 10-meter air rifle. pic.twitter.com/QfVgH3HowK
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 6, 2016
Basically, the Games opened with a plucky young underdog with a badass name shooting better than everyone else.
Yeah… ‘Murica.
An American named Virginia Thrasher winning a gold medal in shooting seems made up
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) August 6, 2016
https://twitter.com/LauraBenanti/status/761934695969988608
https://twitter.com/StubblyDoRight/status/761962698871627776
HER NAME IS VIRGINIA THRASHER THAT IS SO AMERICA https://t.co/kfF2fELpPa
— @hayesbrown.bsky.social (@HayesBrown) August 6, 2016
Seriously, Ginny Thrasher sounds like the name of a crime-fighting superhero (well, that or a heavy metal drummer). She should parlay her Olympic success into a comic book series or something. Bad guys better watch out because Ginny Thrasher is come for you, and she’s got deadeye aim.
Thrasher attends the University of West Virginia, where she helped the Mountaineers rifle team win its fourth straight national title while winning two individual championships. She was not expected to take gold, or even silver or bronze, in the 10-meter rifle but pulled off the upset, beating out silver medalist Du Li of China.
Thrasher’s upset victory shows that while there may be some areas in which you can top America, guns is not one of them.
