Ginny Thrasher, a 19-year-old Virginia native, won the United States' first gold medal of the 2016 Rio Olympics on Saturday, competing in the 10-meter air rifle. Thrasher bested stiff competition from the Chinese and Serbian teams to score a huge upset victory.
Coming in to the competition ranked 23rd in the world, neither the Associated Press nor Sports Illustrated picked Thrasher to win a medal of any color, never mind gold.
Congrats to Virginia Thrasher #USA on winning the first ?? #Rio2016. #shootingsport via @ISSF_Shooting pic.twitter.com/CSEmdcfymM
— Rio 2016 (@Rio2016_en) August 6, 2016
GOLDEN GINNY! #TeamUSA's first medal. #TeamUSA's first #Gold! pic.twitter.com/Ew62Pl9svB
— USA Shooting (@USAShooting) August 6, 2016
WATCH: Ginny Thrasher receives the 1st #Gold medal of the Rio Olympics for @TeamUSA. https://t.co/aAJcpnoe9v pic.twitter.com/SHKclZX0Ct
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2016
Thrasher is currently a member of WVU's champion rifle team. She was the first freshman ever to sweep both air rifle individual NCAA titles.
Congrats Ginny!
