6 comments:

raven said...

Those are the Olympic Trophies that are not mentioned in polite company. gunz! EEK! The badness!

Ymar Sakar said...

Guns are common. Skill with weapons, is not.

Guerilla insurgencies need training with weapons, just as valuable as the munitions themselves.

However, it is difficult to train while the enemy occupies most of the territory and transportation hubs. That's why Americans are "free" for now at least. Even BLM Nation of Islam terror agents are getting in on the high level marksmanship training. Even as they do stupid things like kill their own cadre before they can finish training other cells.

MikeD said...

10 meter air rifle. I don't disparage the young lady's skill, but shooting a bb gun (no matter how complex) at a target ~35 feet away is hardly a "martial" skill. I would prefer they use a service caliber rifle at 300+ meters. That would be much more impressive.

Grim said...

Well, it bears the same relationship to military marksmanship that fencing bears to swordfighting. Still, it's better than track and field. :)

MikeD said...

Track and field were once military skills. Running, javelin, discus, shotput... all martial skills. Archery too. Foils, epees, and rapiers were all weapons of war at one point. True, they have been "demilitarized" for the Olympics, because we've ceased to support bloodsports in the modern era. But rifle marksmanship can be performed bloodlessly, even with full military grade weaponry.

douglas said...

Modern Pentathalon:
From Wikipedia- The modern pentathlon, invented by Pierre de Coubertin (father of the Modern Olympics), was a variation on the military aspect of the Ancient pentathlon. It focused on the skills required by a late-19th-century soldier, with competitions in shooting, swimming, fencing, equestrianism, and cross country running.

I think it's inevitable that once you make soldiering a sport, it will change into something other than martial in nature, because the drive to win will take into account that no one is shooting back at you and you don't have the other issues like supply, or durability in the field to deal with. So I'll hold no fault to the athletes that it's not so martial anymore.