An American In Paris: UAF Shooting Alum Sagen Maddalena Back In The Olympics

The following. appears in the July issue of Alaska Sporting Journal:

BY CHRIS COCOLES

One fringe benefit – eh, French benefit? – that Sagen Maddalena wasn’t able to savor in food-centric Tokyo is sampling the similarly famed Parisian cuisine the City of Lights is known for.

“I’m a foodie,” says the University of Alaska shooting team alum and soon-to-be two-time U.S. Olympian. Maddalena will follow up her Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics appearance by participating in two events starting this month in the Paris Games, women’s air rifle and the 50-meter three-positions rifle, the latter of which she also competed in at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in summer 2021.

Speaking of the pandemic, safety restrictions limited Maddalena, a sergeant and U.S. Army Marksmanship Team Unit member, and other Team USA athletes to socially distanced dining hall meals and mostly just their sports’ venues in Japan. So experiencing the restaurant and bistro culture in Paris is definitely on her agenda. Yet it’s a distant second to goal No. 1: finishing on the medal podium.

“I definitely wanted to podium and there was that tinge of, ‘Oh, you’re so close but not quite,’ but at the same time it kind of lit this fire. The need to go back was just so strong and to have that next opportunity, which I got,” the 30-year-old native Californian says.

Maddalena was in medal contention throughout the finals in her 50-meter rifle event in Tokyo before a few slip-ups relegated her to a still respectable fifth place behind gold medalist Nina Christen of Switzerland and two Russian Olympic Committee shooters who took silver and bronze.

At the Paris Olympics, Maddalena already competed In the mixed air rifle team competition in today’s first full day of competition (she and fellow U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit teammate Ivan Roe finished in 18th place). Just after 11 p.m. Alaska Time late tonight, she’ll try to qualify for the finals in women’s air rifle. Then on Thursday, Aug. 1, it’s the 50-meter rifle three-position qualification. So it will be a busy first week in France.

The close-but-not-quite performance had Maddalena reminiscing about what went wrong in Tokyo and how she can reverse course in France.

“I had a bit of a missed shot in prone; I think it was one that went out the bottom a bit, so that kind of knocked me down the leaderboard. I think I was sitting around third. But once I got on my feet I wasn’t as proficient,” she says of the standing portion of the event (prone and kneeling represent the other shooting positions).

“That’s been one of my stronger training (priorities). I’ve been training in that position quite hard since then just to be more prepared for it. … I felt good about my prep going into it, and that performance solidified what I did; the preparation that I took was the right track. It wasn’t like I was going down the wrong rabbit hole. It all worked out.”

And she hopes a return to the Olympics – with a second opportunity at a medal – will be even more fulfilling the second time around.

“It feels like my job,” she says. “The experience of being there is awesome, but I think now, this time around I’m more excited to be competing.”

THE FOUR-YEAR CYCLE FOR Olympic shooting sports qualification – known as a quad – was, of course, a shorter timeframe for the 2024 Paris Games that due to the pandemic pushed Tokyo a year later to summer 2021.

And while athletes had less time to prepare, Maddalena seemed focused from the get-go due to her mental and physical state of mind. Training with her talented Army Marksmanship Unit at Georgia’s Fort Moore certainly helps keep an athlete on her or his toes.

“Since the (Tokyo) Games, I gained a new sense of confidence in myself; not like a cocky confidence but a sense of, ‘I can roll with these guys. I can compete and trust my training plan.’ And so I started seeing a lot more success and a lot closer successes; just being with those top 10 athletes in the world several times,” Maddalena says. “So knowing that I could hold my own for this quad has definitely been just going out and competing, keeping that confidence and knowing that my training plan works and trusting in it – knowing that I don’t have to overtrain.”

Sergeant First Class Henry (Hank) Gray, the Marksmanship Unit’s assistant team chief in international rifle, has watched Maddalena advance from successful college shooter to one of the senior members of this select team.

While she was still a civilian and UAF shooter, Maddalena competed against some of Gray’s Army participants in the 2014 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup while still in college.

“She performed great at the Tokyo Olympics. We all got a glimpse of her overall talent and abilities, but she was still somewhat ‘new’ to winning on the world stage. Here we are three years later on our way to Paris and I think she is truly ready,” Gray says. “Sergeant Maddalena possesses a unique ability to truly address trouble areas, and not just practice the easy stuff. She has the discipline to keep fighting through the difficult times and tough stuff to make it better. She is ready for this one and we are excited to watch!”

Since after the Tokyo Olympics, Peter Durben has been Team USA’s head rifle coach and considers Maddalena, who’s won four World Championships team or individual medals between 2022 and 2023, a contender for podium finishes in Paris.

“The competition and opponents are the same she has faced for many years. But the Olympics are different,” Durben says. “Athletes face many outside distractions not typically encountered at other international competitions. By experiencing the Games already in Tokyo, Sagen knows what to expect, has a solid plan and is prepared to minimize distractions so she can focus on her performance.”

Last August, Maddalena’s World Championships’ bronze medal in the same 50-meter three-positions rifle event she’ll compete in at the Olympics ended a Team USA drought in that event dating back to 1990.

“The effort she has put in to work on her weaknesses has been demonstrated in those medal-winning performances,” Gray says, citing Maddalena’s World Championships’ gold in the women’s team event for 50-meter rifle with teammates Mary Tucker and Sarah Beard. (She won a mixed rifle team gold – with Army Marksmanship teammate Ivan Roe – and an air rifle silver at the 2022 Worlds).

Adding the air rifle event to her Paris 2024 itinerary was also a long time coming for Maddalena, who tried to qualify in air rifle in both the 2016 and 2020 Olympic trials.

“I took fourth for Tokyo (qualifying) in air rifle and I was going through kind of a hard mental struggle at that time,” she says after falling one spot short. “It was a tough lesson because I knew I was good enough to compete in Tokyo in air rifle, but being where I was with my headspace didn’t allow me to qualify well. And it was probably a good thing; it got me ready for this quad.”

THE ARMY MARKSMANSHIP UNIT found quite a compelling story when Maddalena joined shortly after she enlisted in 2019. After walking on to the team at UAF (Alaska Sporting Journal, July 2021), she blossomed into an eight-time NCAA All-American.

“We knew her as a young civilian shooter and even competed alongside her in the 2014 World Championships. Her work ethic and drive were obvious back then, which is a large part of why we really wanted her to become part of our team,” Gray says. “However, at that time it was pure hunger and grit; since joining the team and settling into Army life we have seen her grow into a true champion.”

“She has learned how to focus that energy and put it towards quality training every single day. In fact, we see it in everything she does. Sergeant Maddalena is truly a model soldier whom anyone would love to have on their team, military or civilian, regardless of the work to be done.”

The camaraderie between her and the Marksmanship Unit teammates has provided the kind of atmosphere that breeds success. Maddalena calls the Army a “driving force” for what she does on the international competition stage.

Being part of a team of peers who are elite shooters provides perspective.

“And to be able to represent the U.S. and the Army, it just shows that you can’t just do it by yourself or for yourself. To me that would serve no purpose. Going into it this year I understand the words now of having a support system within the Army. It really is like our own version of a NASCAR pit crew,” she says.

“Just the stuff that’s going on behind the scenes now that I’ve moved up the ranks, I’ve seen a little bit more; experienced more. Maybe you can do this on your own and do really well, but the feeling of when I’m at competitions and I get to stand on that podium, you only see me but I feel like I’m surrounded by my support system. I know that they’re in a country far away, but they’re cheering me on and they’ve done the work as much as I’ve done.”

Close friends and fellow soldiers away from the range, they are fierce competitors when the lights are turned on to compete. Maddalena says even the friendly competition can get “pretty heated sometimes.”

“But that’s what makes us so good,” she admits.

Indeed, three other team members, including fellow World Championship gold medalist Roe, qualified for the Olympics. Another, Staff Sergeant Kevin Nguyen, who lost a leg from a combat injury suffered in Afghanistan, will compete in next month’s Paris Paralympic Games in the 50-meter rifle R6 prone event.

“Sagen is without a doubt one of the most impressive female athletes I have ever had the pleasure of training alongside. Her technique and discipline within the sport are unmatched,” Nguyen says. “She continues to push the limit of this sport and I am beyond proud of her. She’s not only a great shooter, but a great soldier and friend.”

Her Team USA coach Durben offers some civilian perspective on what Maddalena’s Army Marksmanship Unit experience has meant to her.

“To get to and maintain an elite level in this sport requires complete dedication. This is not a hobby but a lifestyle. The AMU has allowed Sagen to fully dedicate her life at this moment to be the best in the world by not only providing world-class equipment and training facilities, all while getting a salary, but also by surrounding herself with like-minded elite-level athletes striving to be the best,” Durben says. “Top equipment and training facilities are necessary to be world-class, but the AMU’s winning atmosphere where other elite athletes push and encourage each other is what gets you to the top.”

AS YOU MIGHT GUESS, traveling the world to participate in shooting sports competitions and life in the military makes it difficult to leave Georgia for the outdoor activities a soldier loves. And Maddalena doesn’t get back to visit her Northern California family as often as she’d like.

“When I get to leave (the base), I love my parents but I really don’t want to get back on an airplane,” she quips.

She also hasn’t returned to Alaska in a while either after her stellar rifle team career at UAF (Maddalena earned a 2018 degree in natural resource management).

“It keeps calling my name but I haven’t gone back. I’m just looking forward to seeing the school again and experiencing the team, walking into the range. I spent a lifetime of hours on that range for five years,” she says. “And it’s going to be cool just walking in it. But also being back in Alaska and hopefully getting some fishing in and getting out on the river.”

It’s safe to say that UAF – and the opportunity to join the team as a non-scholarship athlete – changed her life.

“I had some great coaches at the start of my collegiate career and really good teammates throughout the entire collegiate experience. And we never did get that NCAA Division I team title. But looking back at it I don’t remember the accolades. I just remember the team and the fun times we had together,” says Maddalena, who also wants to catch up with former coach Dan Jordan, who stepped down in 2016 after coaching the Nanooks to three of the program’s 11 national championships.

Jordan was the coach who encouraged Maddalena to join the team back in 2013. “I know I need to pick up the phone and call,” she says. “He was the one who gave me a chance and so there are a lot of feelings about that. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”
You can bet that fishing will also be a part of her Alaska reunion when it does happen again. For now, there are plenty of fishing opportunities adjacent to Fort Moore’s western Georgia location along the border with Alabama.

“I can get out fishing pretty often and the big ones have been hitting lately,” she says of the myriad bass fisheries around the base. “I pulled out an 8-pounder a few weeks ago. And that was a thrill. It’s all about the bass fishing and the (catfish) down here.”

SAGEN IN PARIS WON’T be a new TV show coming to your favorite streaming service, but like many athletes congregating in France’s capital city, it will feel like a storybook opportunity for Maddalena and others who also attended the Olympics in Covid-restricted Tokyo.

Not that she has any bad memories from her first experience on the world’s biggest sports stage. The dining hall offered a most unique experience. Besides the multiple food options, athletes were often placed among their own teams at tables separated by plexiglass to avoid possible outbreaks.

“You could see through the glass and I’d be sitting across from all these people from different countries sitting all together. You’re sharing a meal with all these awesome athletes from all over the world. They’re trying to be the best that they can be and I’m trying to be the best that I can be. We’re all experiencing it together,” she says. “I remember one of the skateboard dudes from somewhere in South America came riding in on his skateboard and he was doing his tricks. It was so cool. I remember taking the escalator down from the top to the bottom and here comes up one of the basketball players, and I could swear he was 7 feet tall, and I’m just looking up at this guy.”

In Paris, she’ll be able to stretch her legs a little more. And while the Olympic shooting competition will be held away from the city at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre – a little more than two hours away from the city by train – and the shooting teams will be housed at a satellite Olympic Village, Maddalena is confident she’ll find time to sample Paris’ famed coffee house scene and, just as critical for this foodie, access to French sweet treats like the bite-sized confectionery known as petit four (French for small oven).

“I hope I’m pronouncing it right,” she jokes. (While we’re at it: pronounce her name Sagen with a soft g and her last name like Mad-A-Laina.)

So count on this Army sharpshooter arriving in France famished for baked goods but even more hungry to join past shooting medalists with Alaska ties such as Corey Cogdell-Unrein and Jamie Gray.

Maddalena is starved to reach that medal podium also.

“The goal is to be prepared and have a medal-winning performance at the Olympics, so that puts me in a good mindset, letting the work take place and just being in the moment. And when the outcome comes after all that process,” she says. “A big thing too to think about being at the Olympics, you’ve got the best of the best. Ten of those women can be top three on any given day. It’s on that moment, on that day, in that hour. It’s where those shots land.”

“So I know that I’ll be prepared; my equipment is top-notch and it’s ready to go. I’m going to be ready to go. For me, when I’m on that range competing, I just envision that there’s another Sagen shooting right beside me and who wants to beat me.” ASJ

Editor’s notes: For more on the shooting competition for the Paris Olympics, go to olympics.com/en/paris-2024/ sports/shooting. Check out the USA Shooting website at usashooting.org, and Sergeant Sagen Maddalena’s U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit’s site is recruiting. army.mil/army_marksmanship.

SOUND OF HEAVY MEDALS

Sagen Maddalena is seeking her first Olympic medal when she competes in the 50-meter rifle three-positions and air rifle in Paris. But she’s already won multiple medals in the World Championships and Pan American Games.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2022 (Held in Cairo, Egypt)
? Gold Mixed team 50-meter rifle prone (with teammate Ivan Roe) ? Silver 10-meter air rifle team (Mary Tucker, Alison Weisz)

2023 (Baku, Azerbaijan)

? Gold 50-meter rifle three-positions team (Mary Tucker, Sarah Beard)
? Bronze 50-meter rifle three-positions

PAN AMERICAN GAMES
2023 (Santiago, Chile)
? Gold 10-meter air rifle
? Bronze Mixed team 10-meter air rifle (Gavin Barnick)