On July 4, Not Too Early To Think About The Paris Olympics This Month

Happy Independence Day! In our just completed July issue, we’re featuring the return to the Summer Olympics for shooter Sagen Maddalena, a sergeant in the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit and a University of Alaska Fairbanks rifle team. (This is our profile of her before she competed in the 2020 – Covid-delayed until 2021 – Tokyo Summer Olympics.

We wrote up a full feature on Sergeant Maddalena that we’ll post just before the Paris Games begin on July 26. For now, here’s a sneak peak from editor Chris Cocoles’ Editor’s Note in our July issue.

The first time I remember watching the Olympics I was with my dad and we were visiting friends who originally came from Italy and Austria, respectively. I was probably 8 years old and the 1976 Winter Olympics from Innsbruck, Austria, were on TV. The event was men’s downhill skiing and the leader of the race, Switzerland’s Bernhard Russi, held his position, as no competitor could beat his time. Until Austrian Franz Klammer left the starting gate.

I found the YouTube clip of ABC’s call and it was a carnival ride of near falls and reckless speed as Klammer thrilled the Olympic host country’s fans by winning the gold medal. I’ve been hooked on watching the Olympics ever since. To me, it doesn’t matter if fans like me don’t necessarily pay a great deal of attention to sports like track and field, gymnastics and swimming, but every four years I’ll get obsessed about the 100-meter dash, the balance beam and the but-terfly in those three respective sports.

 The Paris Summer Olympics kick off on July 26, and I’ll be looking around on the various broadcast platforms for the two shooting events that University of Alaska Fairbanks rifle team alum Sagen Maddalena participates in. In chatting with Maddalena for our feature story on her this month, I told her about the last time we covered her shooting career in 2021 when she just missed out on a medal in the 50-meter rifle three-positions event at the Tokyo Summer Olympics. With the time change between the West Coast and Japan, I stayed up late one night watching her event on my lap-top. Maddalena finished fifth that night, but she’ll get another chance in that event and also in the air rifle competition in Paris. I was nodding my head when she talked about what it meant to be an Olympian.

 “It wasn’t really until I was at the Olympics that I got the Olympic bug. And once I was there I was like, ‘I want to go to the Olympics.’ Of course I was already there and thinking ahead of time for the next quad,” Maddalena, a sergeant in the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, told me. “This was the tip of the spear for athletics and I was already like, ‘I want to go back.’”

Indeed, she’ll get another opportunity in France. And after her last effort in Tokyo and winning a bronze medal in the 50-meter rifle event at the 2023 World Championships, Maddalena should be a contender for an Olympic medal. 

Such an accomplishment is what any young athlete dreams of, and like most of the world, Americans have a sense of pride when one of us lands on the podium. In our politically charged world I’ve started to question if the playing of or singing the national anthem is necessary before every sporting event, but I’m all in for a gold medal ceremony “Star-Spangled Banner” performance. Whether you’re an American, or French, or Australian, you can’t help but feel a sense of pride. I can only imagine the adrenaline rush Austri-ans must have had when Klammer was awarded his gold back in 1976.

I brought up the possibility of Maddalena winning an Olympic medal and how she’d feel about it. 

“I can’t tell ya because there’s so much drive and desire to be up on that podium. Once I get there I have no idea what my emotions would even be like or the thoughts or any of that. It’s a huge accomplishment to (medal) at the Olympics,” she said. “It’s a goal and it’s a dream, and when you have a dream come true it’s such an emotional roller coaster of excitement and relief and joy. But at the same time, I can’t foresee the future on that one.” Good luck to Sagen and all the other Olympians from around the world. I’ll be watching you. -Chris Cocoles