Cupid succeeds where shooter fails
BEIJING
Matt Emmons was one shot from a second Olympic gold medal four years ago, one final routine of focusing his gaze and steadying his hand and slowing his breath and maintaining his body in a near motionless state.
In the world of competitive shooting, all that stood between the guy from Browns Mills, N.J., and another climb to the top of a medals stand was hitting his final target in 50-meter three-position rifle.
He didn’t need to hit the black and white bull’s-eye. He needed to be barely in the same ZIP code. He could have shot from Athens and hit Sparta and still won. He needed to be about as accurate as the kid taking BB gun aim at soda bottles. He was that far ahead on points.
He steadied and shot.
Problem: Emmons hit the wrong target, received a zero and finished eighth. They call it a crossfire.
Today, he considers it his greatest blessing.
Emmons is proof that temporary failure can pay off in eternal bliss, that even at our lowest moments, fortunes can turn with the most innocent of meetings.
His came in a beer garden following that haunting mistake. It is where a Czech shooter named Katerina Kurkova approached him to offer sympathy for him resembling more Ralphie from “A Christmas Story” than elite marksman on that final shot. But not even an official Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle would have made Emmons suffer any less. Not even that.
“I just felt so bad for him,” she says now. “To this day, I think of him as the gold medal winner in (that event). He had such a wonderful performance. I just thought he deserved a few nice words.”
On Friday, Emmons won silver in 50-meter prone rifle, in which shooters lie flat and take 10 final-round shots at a target. When it was over and Artur Ayvazian of Ukraine had clinched gold by a 702.1-701.7 margin, Emmons rose and smiled. He walked toward the stands and embraced the person who changed everything. His wife, Katerina, whom he married in June 2007.
Emmons went out on one of the worst nights of his life to drown his sorrows in 2004 and ended up meeting his soul mate.
Fact: You wouldn’t know this story if Emmons had done what everyone expected in Athens, if he would have hit his own target. Who knows if Katerina even wanders by that night.
Great shooters will crossfire during a career but hardly ever at top events and never at an Olympics. Not ones with a lead of three points and a shot remaining. Not ones with gold shining off their sight.
This is in the Olympic neighborhood of gags along with Jane Saville being disqualified in Syndey for illegal walking and Svetlana Khorkina falling apart in gymnastics eight years ago and the French men’s 400-meter swim team this week collapsing over the final 50 meters and losing to the United States.
Emmons’ journey also is one in which a sport is thrust into the spotlight based on an unfortunate occurrence. Nothing sells like Olympic heartache.
Mix in a love story and, well, forget about it.
“The crossfire in 2004 put shooting on the map,” he said. “It got more people to understand what our sport is about, or to at least know it exists. I couldn’t be any happier about that.
“Had I won that event in Athens, it wouldn’t have been as big a story to the general public. … The more attention shooting gets, the better. I’m known for a lot of things. Whether it’s (his wife) or (the wrong target), it doesn’t matter to me.”
The couple take turns here competing and cheering each other on, one shooting at targets and the other wringing hands, one all calm and poised and the other a nervous wreck. She is 24; he is 27.
Katerina won the Games’ first gold last Saturday in 10-meter air rifle and then silver on Thursday in 50-meter three-position rifle. Matt on Sunday again competes in the event that altered his destiny four years ago and taught the world more about a sport it most often associates with hunting.
“If I didn’t know, I would like to read a story like this,” Katerina said. “It’s a good story. We are the same level of sport. We are from different nations.
“It’s a good story.”
Said Emmons: “I wouldn’t trade having Katy by my side for anything in the world.”
All this because he hit the wrong target.
He pulled a Ralphie and got the girl.
Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.
