On a day when temperatures soared to the mid-30s at Paris 2024, Great Britain’s Nathan Hales was cool as a cucumber as he set an Olympic record in the men’s trap competition, winning Team GB’s third gold medal of the Games.
Hales broke down in tears on the podium as the British national anthem played, the emotions he had so masterfully controlled during the competition spilling forth.
“Being in this position is something I have dreamed of since I was a kid, since I started shooting with my family,” he said. “It was always a dream of mine, so to be able to come here and actually see it through to the end is absolutely unreal.”
The 28-year-old from Chatham, Kent, claimed an Olympic record of 48 out of 50 to beat the silver medallist, Qi Ying of China, by four shots at the shooting venue in Chateauroux, capital city of the French department of Indre. Jean Pierre Brol Cárdenas took bronze, Guatemala’s second Olympic medal in the nation’s history.
Hales, who is married to the former GB Olympian shooter Charlotte Kerwood, said his wife was his greatest supporter. “She’s been able to share some very helpful insights to thoughts and feelings I was going to be going through whilst we were here, so it’s great being in a sport that we both enjoyed together,” he said.
Hales began clay shooting aged five with his father, and progressed to Olympic trap at the Nuthampstead Shooting Ground in 2014, “with the dream of getting to an Olympic Games”. He won gold in trap with a world record at the World Cup in Lonato, Italy, in 2023 and won a silver medal at the world championships in Osijek, Croatia, in 2022.
But hopes for a medal in the event had focused on the Tokyo bronze medallist Matt Coward-Holley, with Hales in his first Olympics. While Coward-Holley faltered over two days of qualifications, Hales sealed his place in the top-six final.
Hales missed just one of 25 shots in the first phase of the final to come top of the rankings, one ahead of his Chinese rival. In the final phase, when the lowest-scoring shooter is eliminated after every five shots, Hales took a narrow lead of one after 35, at which point he was guaranteed an Olympic medal.
“It was very tight. I just stuck to my routine and followed my process,” Hales said. “I do some sports psychology work, so I stuck to my breathing and trusted myself. I didn’t realise it was an Olympic record until someone mentioned it.”
He paid tribute to the late British shooter and coach Kevin Gill. “We started this journey together, unfortunately, we didn’t get to get to finish it together,” he said. “But I’m sure he’d be very, very proud. The final was great and I’m so happy to get an Olympic record as well as winning the Olympics.”
