Olympics Elite Shooters Q&A-Wired
Wired: How old were you when you first started shooting?
Staff Sgt. Joshua Richmond: I was 5 years old when I shot my first shot. I started competing when I was 10. It was something that my family did for fun, as a hobby to spend time together. It turned into somewhat of a career for me.
Wired: When did you decide to get serious about competition?
Richmond: I was about 13 or 14 when I got in front of some coaches who saw me shoot. I knew by their comments and their eagerness to help me that I may have something going here. But it was not until I was maybe 16 or 17 that I really started traveling more with the USA shooting team and started thinking this could be a career.
Wired: Why the shotgun?
Richmond: My family was more into shotgun shooting. We used rifles for hunting, but we never competed with rifles. To me it’s a little more extreme to shoot moving targets. The rifle gets somewhat lackadaisical at times for me personally. I do enjoy rifle shooting, but shotgun was the route that I was most eager to learn.