Virginia Thrasher, a 19-year-old college student from Virginia, has emerged as the first gold medalist in the ongoing Rio Olympics. She won the 10-meter air rifle competition on Saturday morning.
Thrasher set an Olympic recording, beating China’s Du Li 208.0-207.0. At West Virginia, Thrasher became the first freshman rifle shooter to win individual titles in air and smallbore while leading WVU to their fourth-straight NCAA title.
“Smallbore” refers to rifles that are small-caliber, but not fired by air, which is certainly a thing we all knew and did not just look up.
Thrasher grew up in Northern Virginia and hadn’t fired a gun until five years ago. Three years ago, according to the Washington Post, she was the 45th-ranked junior shooter in the country and wasn’t a popular medal pick before the competition. Now she’s the best in the world.
Also, her nickname is “Ginny.”
Meanwhile a bomb alert at the Beach Volleyball Arena in Copacabana had, early on Saturday, sparked an evacuation and the deployment of bomb disposal robots, while Maracanã Stadium hosted the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics.
The military and armed police cordoned off a section of Avenida Atlantica, a major sea side avenue in Rio de Janeiro bordering Copacabana beach where the Game’s Beach Volleyball Arena is situated, at around 8:40pm local time on Friday.
Bomb disposal teams were deployed over two suspicious bags around 10 minutes later, the Telegraph reports. Explosives robots were also brought in and the items were later found to be safe.
The bomb alert came after thousands of anti-government protestors marched along the waterfront seemingly in support of ousted President Dilma Rousseff.
Michel Temer, a 75-year-old law professor, became acting president after the Senate voted in favour of launching an impeachment trial against Ms Rousseff, suspending her.
Posters at the protests, translated, read: “‘Out Temer! The people should decide.” A bin with a spray-painted stencil had the words “stop coup in Brazil” written on it.”
The pre-ceremony protest followed violent demonstrations on Thursday that marred the Olympic torch’s arrival in the Brazilian city. [myad]
