Olympic Medal In Her Sights But Talented 17-Year-Old Doesn’t Take It Too Seriously

As the 4-inch clay disks spiral away at 65 mph, Kim Rhode squints, squeezes off a round from each barrel of her shotgun, and the spheres virtually dissolve into dust, all within a couple of seconds.

In the same motion, Rhode breaks the gun open and nonchalantly catches the spent shells in her right hand as they kick up out of the barrels.

For the youngest female shooter in an Olympics, this is a routine so familiar, she does it almost without thinking.

During a dove-hunting trip to Arizona when she was 7, Rhode sat on her father’s lap, hooked her arm over his shotgun, leaned the stock against his shoulder and, before long, had her limit of doves.

Four years later, she bagged a kudu, blesbok, steinbok and fallow deer on African safari.

By the time she was 12, she was shooting skeet better than her parents, becoming the youngest girl to break 100 straight in American skeet shooting.

Rhode, who turns 17 on July 16, has her sights set on even bigger game this summer - an Olympic medal.

In a sport in which most competitors at the range are 30 or older, Rhode - who just shed her red, white, blue and gold-banded braces - is a solid contender in the women’s double trap next month in Atlanta.

And, since she won the event at the World Cup competition recently in Italy, she might well be considered the favorite for the gold.

“When she started beating everybody at 12, surpassed my wife and I pretty quickly, we thought she might go on to something big,” Rhode’s father, Richard, said.

“She became very competitive, and a man at the range came up and said, ‘You know, she’s good enough to shoot in the state competition.”’ That man was Art Bright, who has seen thousands of individuals pass through the Pachmayr International Shooting Park, where he is the general manager. He quickly recognized that Rhode was special.

“I’ve seen a lot, and when she first started shooting, I could see she just had a tremendous amount of natural ability,” said Bright, who became Rhode’s mentor and sponsor. “She had great hand-eye coordination and it was instinctive for her.

“She also had the tenacity, like an ice skater or a gymnast, that was as positive as I’ve ever seen in a shooter.”

Rhode usually spends 2 or 3 hours each night at the range.

“People say I have lot of natural ability, because I picked it up real quick,” she said. “I think it also has to do with the fact I do a lot of practicing, a lot more than most people do.

“I’m good at playing games that have to do with hand-eye coordination, Nintendo-type games, pinball games. I’m really good at things like that.”

Rhode also has something else going for her: her attitude about competition.

“Everybody gets nervous to an extent,” she said. “I’m better than most. It’s a game. If I lose, I lose. If I win, it’s just the cherry on the top.

“I want to go and have a good time, and I know you can’t do any better than your best. Some people take it real serious.”

On her way to qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team and winning the World Cup this year, Rhode strung put together an impressive list of achievements. She was the 1993 Ladies World Champion in American skeet; in 1995 she was the national champion in the ladies’ double trap, the gold medalist at the Olympic Festival, and the bronze medalist in the World Cup at Seoul.

Her sport already has opened a world of opportunities for Rhode, a high school junior taking college prep courses. She’s a refreshing mix of politeness, maturity, with-it teenager and, Bright said, “just a wonderful kid.”

She recently was in Houston signing autographs in conjunction with the Olympic torch relay, later visited Ohio to help with American Heart Association fund-raising, then headed to matches in Italy and Germany before going to Atlanta, where she will celebrate her 17th birthday in the Olympic village.

“I’ve been able to travel a lot for competitions - to Argentina, Korea, Cypress, Germany,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot about different cultures and I’ve had a chance to meet a lot of interesting people.”

Rhode’s biggest fans, her parents, had to cut some corners, giving up their own shooting, once she became seriously involved in the sport. Her father pointed out that they were paying about $600 weekly for 1,000 rounds and targets, with travel expenses and fees for competitions sometimes reaching $5,000. The Rhodes don’t regret it one bit.

“It’s exciting to see your kids do well,” Sharon Rhode said. “This was something that we did as a family, and it kept going and going. I never expected this. It’s given her a lot of self-confidence, and she mixes well with all ages.”