The Best Shooter of Our Generation

Don't worry...we'll get to the Monday Gun Porn later this AM...

Since I addressed the issue of reputation last week, I got an email that said, essentially, okay smartass, you dis'sed people without naming them...say something nice about somebody...

No problemo. Let me introduce you to the best, and the greatest, shooter of our generation — Olympian Kim Rhode. She has two gold medals and a bronze medal in the now-eliminated Women's Trap (to be replaced with Dog Frisbee and Ballroom Dancing in Cheesy Costumes). Rather than bitch and moan like I would do, Kim recently announced that she'd make a run on Women's Skeet for the next Summer Games.

Despite the fact that Kim has quite literally reached the highest point a shooter can aim for, her focus is on giving back. Now there's a novel idea! She works with young shooters and new hunters, hosts a television show designed to get people to step outside and do something, speakes to groups about shooting, etc., all while maintaining a shooting training schedule that might charitably be described as "brutal."

Oh, and she's actually a real person as opposed to a "professional shooter." She's a full-time student in pre-veterinary medicine, works at animal clinics, surfs (very well), restores classic cars — she has a Shelby Cobra she turned ev ery single nut and bolt on — hunts and just finished (almost) rehabbing her very first house. She's the only person I know who has a schedule that makes mine look like a SCREAMING JOKE!

Yet she has never once turned down a chance to promote the shooting sports. I've run into her at the range and had her volunteer to cut short her practice to teach the people I was with to shoot the shotgun. Of course, a lot of the "professional shooters" I know would make the same offer, followed by the phrase, "We take all credit cards..." Not Kim.

I saw her just before she went to Athens and gained her second gold medal...her shoulder was so battered she couldn't raise her right arm over her head. She made it a joke rather than an excuse. In fact, in the more than a decade I've known Kim, I've NEVER heard her make an excuse for anything. It has NEVER been the gun, or the weather, the competition, the ammo, the clays that were too hard, too fast, too small, slightly off-color. The most I've ever heard her say was, "I didn't do my job."

She doesn't batter you to death with what she's won...yes, there are lots of other championships...but she understands that she only shoots one real match, against people from around the world who spend years specifically training to beat her. I've also been with her when she handed "the medals" to some of the top sports figures in America and seen them humbled by the profound understanding of the work, the commitment, the talent and, yes, the pain behind those three junks of metal.

Kimmie never has and never would tell people she's a champion. She doesn't have to.

And you know, I've never once heard her talk about having a reputation to protect...