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Join the club, dlish. I trained 7 days a week in 3 position smallbore and air rifle. I was teammates with one member of this year's women's olympic squad, and routinely shot and hung out with another. I shot matches against Matt Emmons, olympic gold medalist from Athens, married to Katerina who won women's gold this year in air. Several of the Army Marksmanship Unit members who are on the men's team, I've laid side-by-side with at the Camp Perry National Matches. Even if I couldn't qualify for the Olympics, I'd for sure be on the US Team right now, training out in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, all that was a wash when I transferred to a school that had no rifle team, and then had to give it up altogether after the cancer hit.
I still hope to get back into it, but I don't have the money to compete right now, and my living situation doesn't condone the amount of training I could hope for. My goal is to make the World Cup by the time I'm 30.
While the situation was somewhat out of my control, I can't help but imagine "what if" everytime I see my friends' faces on the USA shooting website, or scrolled along the ticker on ESPN2.
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Living in the United Socialist States of America.
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