Olympic-bound teen rifle shooter takes aim at fame

JINCHEON, South Korea, While the shooting competition at the previous Summer Olympics was under way in Tokyo in July 2021, Ban Hyo-jin, then 13 years old, was just a few weeks into her own shooting career, taking her practice shots in her hometown of Daegu. Not once did she think then she would be competing at an Olympic Games herself just three years later. It would be disingenuous to say Ban has realized her dream by qualifying for the Paris Olympics for this summer, because Ban, who will compete in the women's 10-meter air rifle, is the first to admit she never even harbored such a dream when she started out in 2021. "The Tokyo Olympics took place just a couple of weeks after I started out. At the time, I wasn't thinking about making it to the Olympics," Ban said Monday during an opening training session at Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, some 85 kilometers south of Seoul. "I didn't even think I'd be capable of that." Ban, now 16, entered the Olympic trials just to gain some competition experience. Her initial objective was to compete against some veteran shooters this year and then push for a spot on the national team for the 2025 season. But Ban found herself in the lead after three out of five rounds in the trials. Suddenly, an Olympic spot was within grasp. "I started thinking, 'I might make it.' But then I quickly decided I should stop getting ahead of myself," Ban said. "I didn't shoot as well as I wanted in the fourth round. So the fifth round was really important. I felt a little nervous but I ended up finishing first. I couldn't believe it at first. I felt very lucky and very grateful." It is a remarkable rise for someone who only picked up shooting in middle school just because a close friend of hers wanted her to, after the two had spent years practicing taekwondo together. "Before I formally joined the team, the coach told me I should try 10 times harder than the rest of the team because I was more than a year behind them, or he wasn't going to put me on the team," Ban recall ed. "That really motivated me to work hard. I've always been adventurous and driven. I love trying new things." Ban said it only took her "two weeks" to realize she did have some talent in shooting. And two months after she joined her school team, Ban won a municipal competition in Daegu, some 240 km southeast of Seoul. "That's when my parents changed their mind and decided to support my career," Ban said. "I decided I should try to make the most of my talent." Ban said her lack of Olympic experience may work in her favor because ignorance is indeed bliss. "Not having any prior experience may seem like a disadvantage, but I think I can relax more than others because I am just trying to build experience," Ban said. "So I think it may end up being an advantage for me." Ban isn't the first teenage shooter to represent South Korea at an Olympic Games. At Barcelona 1992, Yeo Kab-soon won the women's air rifle gold at age 18. Kang Cho-hyun came out of nowhere to grab silver in the women's 10m air rifle in Sydn ey in 2000, when she was 17. Ban has already begun drawing comparisons to Yeo and Kang, and she said she isn't bothered by extra attention. If anything, she would like more of it, ideally after she wins an Olympic medal of her own. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to be famous," Ban said with a smile. "When I see gold medalists on television, I feel pretty confident I will be doing the same thing someday in the future." Source: Yonhap News Agency