With less than 50 days until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, there’s no better time than now to learn more about the team representing USA Shooting on the world’s largest sporting stage.
Five pistol athletes will represent Team USA at the Paris 2024 Games, which will be held from July 26 to August 11. The five pistol athletes heading to France this summer are Alexis Lagan, Katelyn Abeln, Ada Korkhin, Henry Leverett and Keith Sanderson.
Alexis Lagan, a Boulder City, Nevada, native, is among the returning Olympians from the Tokyo 2020 Games. Lagan qualified in Women’s Air Pistol for the Paris 2024 Games. Most recently, she earned a silver medal in the event at the 2023 Pan American Games, where she also secured the U.S. a quota for Paris 2024. A three-time medalist from the 2022 Championship of the Americas Games, Lagan is also a six-time national champion. When she is not training at the range, Lagan is enjoying her pet corgis and coaching for Team Winning Solutions.
Katelyn Abeln of Douglasville, Georgia, will be making her Olympic debut this year in Paris. She shot for Ohio State University and qualified in the Women’s Air Pistol and Women’s Sport Pistol events this year. At the 2024 Championship of the Americas Games, she won two medals. A 2023 World Championship team member, she first encountered the shooting sports through her local 4H club where she began shooting BB guns and the basics of firearms safety. The first time she shot an air gun was on a makeshift target at the back of a CrossFit gym and she fell in love. Abeln recently graduated with her bachelor’s degree and is currently in graduate school.
Also making her Olympic debut this year in Paris will be Ada Korkhin of Brookline, Massachusetts, who will be competing in Women’s Sport Pistol at just 20 years old. She got her start in the sport at the age of nine through the Massachusetts Rifle Association Junior Pistol Team and currently shoots for the Ohio State University pistol team. Although this will be Korkhin’s first Olympic Games, she is no stranger to success on the international stage—the pistol shooter earned a gold medal at the 2024 Championship of the Americas Games in Women’s 25m Sport Pistol Team, where she was joined on the podium with teammates Abeln and Lisa Emmert-Traciak.
Henry Leverett, a Bainbridge, Georgia, native, qualified for Paris 2024 in the Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol event. He will be making his second appearance at the Paris 2024 Olympics after competing in Tokyo 2020. Leverett comes from a family of sport shooters. His brother Jack competed alongside him at the Tokyo 2020 Games and sister Abbie shot with both of her brothers on the Ohio State University pistol team. Leverett already has a slew of international medals, including a bronze from the 2023 Pan American Games, where he also secured the U.S. an Olympic quota slot. A 2023 World Championship team member, Leverett recently earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Diplomacy and will attend graduate school in Vienna, Austria, this fall.
Keith Sanderson of Monument, Colorado, qualified for Paris 2024 in Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol. This will be Sanderson’s fourth Olympic Games after competing at the Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games. Sanderson served in the Army and Marine Corps and was most recently on the 2023 World Championship team and the 2023 Pan American Games team. He earned the last quota needed for the U.S. in Men’s Rapid Fire Pistol earlier this year at the 2024 Championship of the Americas Games. Additionally, Sanderson is a two-time NRA Precision Pistol National Champion, with his most recent win in 2019.
The first pistol event for Paris 2024 is Women’s Air Pistol on July 27. All event finals will be streamed live on Peacock, NBC’s streaming platform. You can see the full Olympic shooting schedule here.
The Paris 2024 Olympic alternates for the U.S. Pistol Team are:
- Women’s Air Pistol: Suman Sanghera and Lisa Emmert-Traciak
- Women’s Sport Pistol: Lisa Emmert-Traciak and Alexis Lagan
As of June 7, the U.S. Olympic shooting team consists of 16 athletes, along with five on the U.S. Paralympic team. View the entire U.S. Olympic shooting team and Paralympic team rosters.
Learn more about USA Shooting at usashooting.org.