IRA PODELL
AP Sports Writer
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) – Nancy Johnson wanted to shoot arrows as a child, but the lack of a local range steered her elsewhere.
That switch to the rifle range produced the first gold medal of the Sydney Olympics. Johnson won the women’s 10-meter air rifle Saturday (Friday night EDT).
“Winning the first medal – that’s pretty cool,” said the 26-year-old Johnson of Downers Grove, Ill., who wanted to go into archery as a teen-ager. “It’s extra special, no doubt.”
Her father, Ben Napolski, took his 15-year-old daughter to a shooting range when archery was not possible. Napolski was in attendance as the gold-medal performance took place.
“He was very emotional, very teary,” Johnson said. “He just said, ‘I’m so proud of you.”‘
Johnson finished with a score of 497.7 to edge Kang Cho-hyun of South Korea, who had 497.5 points, in the eight-woman final round. China’s Gao Jing scored 497.2 to finish third.
“Unbelievable. I knew I had a medal but I didn’t know it was going to be gold,” said Johnson, who earned the first U.S. medal in the event since 1984.
IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch was originally scheduled to present the first medals, but he left Sydney early in the day for his home in Barcelona, Spain, to be with his sick wife. Olegario Vazquez Rana, the chief of the International Shooting Sport Federation, handed out the medals instead.
Johnson entered the final round in a four-way tie for second with 395 points and got some advice before shooting again.
“I got off the line,” she said. “I talked to my husband (Ken Johnson, a member of the U.S. men’s air rifle team) and coach, they told me what I was doing wrong. I was swaying.”
Johnson won a silver medal at last year’s Pan American Games. She decided to skip Friday night’s opening ceremony to get a good night’s sleep.
“They said I could walk in the parade if I wanted to,” Johnson said. “My coach said winning a medal could change my life.”
Johnson added that she “slept like a rock.”
Johnson, the 1999 national champion, also competed in air rifle at the 1996 Games. In World Cup competition earlier this year, she finished sixth at Atlanta and fourth in Milan, Italy.
A second U.S. shooter, Jayme Dickman, finished sixth Saturday with 495.4 points. Dickman, an alternate on the 1996 team, was thought to be a contender for a medal.
World champion Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany finished fifth with 495.9.
“She went out with a very grim look on her face,” Johnson said of Pfeilschifter. “And I went out with a smile, determined to do my best.”
