FORT MOORE, Ga. (WTVM) - Preparing and competing in the Olympics is something most of us cannot process. But one Georgia native and Fort Moore soldier is doing it.
Staff Sergeant Will Hinton is competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics in International Trap Shooting.
Sgt. Hinton is part of the Army Marksmanship Unit - which has many different hats, including competitions, the Fort Moore lethality department, research and development department, and being encompassed in the U.S. Army recruiting command. Hinton is on the competition side of the Marksmanship Unit - specifically on the International Shotgun Team.
“So our job is to secure medals and wins national and internationally,” said Sgt. Hinton.
Hinton knew he wanted to be a competitive shooter at a young age, but never thought joining the U.S. Army would be in his cards. However, it’s been lifechanging for him in quite a few ways.
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“My initial goal was, I was a shooter as a civilian,” he said. “I was and wanted to be a competitive shooter and eventually the Army Marksmanship Unit reached out to me about shooting International Trap and I did not shoot that discipline at the time. I came down here for a week and saw what they did... And I already competed against them. They ultimately offered me a position and I’ve been here for about eight years since.”
Trapshooting is a shotgun discipline, where competitors shoot clay targets that are flying roughly between 68 to 80 miles an hour.
“We shoot shot shells - some people call it birdshot - but it’s a standardized game shot all around the world and it’s also an Olympic discipline,” he said.
In trap shooting, the competitor shoots the clay target with a shotgun from 16 meters back - and will have the chance at two shots on each target.
“Shooting, especially shotgun shooting, there’s no aiming involved - it’s all pointing. So we don’t use sides, we don’t use optics, or anything like that. It’s all pointing, like throwing a football to a receiver,” he said.
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Hinton’s job is not to panic or overreact... sounds easy, right?
“In about a 10th or two-tenths of a second, I’m reading the line, speed, and direction of a target. That takes a lot of metal work and patience not to anticipate when you have something called a false start. You’re so wired up for when the target comes out, you can go the wrong direction because you’re just letting off energy that’s built up,” he said.
Before qualifying for the Olympics, Hinton secured an Olympic quota in Lima, Peru where he won Championship of the Americas, which is the entire Western Hemisphere.
“I made every team this point up into the Olympic team. So I had Pan-American, CAT Games, World Cups and World Championships but I have never done the Olympic Games... You only get one shot at it every four years,” Hinton said.
Hinton qualified and out-shot over 120 other men competing to qualify for the Olympics. And that was just the beginning.
“Training never goes how you want it to. Again, you’re not competing but you’re trying to force results and expectations out of yourself. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not. But that delayed gratification... I’ve had to become a student of that. But it’s the definition of insanity. I do the same thing every time, and I expect different results. I want to win and I want to win better each time,” said Hinton.
The Olympics Opening Day is July 26 and his total sport will be three days from there.
“I’ll have official training where I’ll go out there and kind of test my routine, shoot and stuff. And then for record fire, I guess you would call it, the qualification will be two days. It will 75 targets first day, 50 targets the second day and then at the end of that, they’ll take the top six and shoot final. At the end of that you get one shot per target with the remainder 50 shots and then the top three are awarded medals,” he said.
Hinton competes July 29 at 3 a.m. EST and WTVM wishes him nothing but luck!
“Yes, I’m looking forward to it, but now since I’ve made the team. Now, I can actually do what I wanna do... I know I can prepare to win a medal. Ideally gold, but any medal will work,” said Hinton.
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