American shooter, Ginny Thrasher was presented with the first gold of the Games by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Thomas Bach.
The 19-year-old took out China’s Du Li, who won gold in Athens in 2004, with an Olympic-record score of 208. Defending Olympic championn Yi Siling, also of China, took the bronze medal.
In what impressively is her first Olympic, Thrasher established an early lead after battling with the Russian shooter, Daria Vdovina, who had problems midway through the competition and finished fifth.
“About halfway through the final I realised that I was actually in contention for a medal and that was a great feeling obviously, but I had to go and push that thought away and come back to focusing on shooting, and once I did that and that final was over. I’m just very proud to be able to start off the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in such a positive manner for my country.
“It means an incredible amount to me to be able to represent the USA and do so positively,” said Thrasher.
Also the youngest of the eight finalists by several years, Thrasher seemed unfazed by her seasoned field and consistently scored in the 10 points target area over the 20 rounds.
The teenager however regretted not attending the opening ceremony on Friday; hitting the sack early instead to rest for her debut, which certainly proved to have paid off.
Meanwhile, in the first ever Olympic rugby sevens match, the French women’s team beat Spain 24-7 in Pool B.
