MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Ginny Thrasher has never been to Brazil, but the 19-year-old West Virginia rifle shooter had never been to the NCAA Rifle Championships, either. Nor had she competed in the Olympic trials.
In a month’s time, all three items will be crossed off her bucket list.
On Monday, the NCAA smallbore rifle champion competed in the Olympic trials for the 2016 Summer Olympics and finished in first place in the smallbore competition, securing a place on Team USA for this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
She’ll leave on Tuesday for a dry run with her new teammates.
CAMPUS CELEBRITY
In just a month, Thrasher has gone from your everyday freshman on campus to somewhat of a known commodity. The first-year college student from Springfield, Va., said that she’s gained much more exposure since capturing an individual national title, as well as helping West Virginia’s rifle team to its 18th team title.
“It’s really nice to be so well supported by the Morgantown community and the West Virginia University community,” she said. “The last few days as I’ve been walking to class or I’m in class, people have come up and stopped me to say congratulations.”
Her biggest celebrity moment, perhaps, came just this week, though.
“Yesterday, some girl wanted to take a selfie with me,” she said with a smile stretched across her face.
In the end, Thrasher said she’s the same girl she was when she entered college, a student-athlete with her head on straight.
“It’s nice to get attention, especially in a sport that’s not well publicized,” she said. “Has it changed me? No. It changes my plans for the summer, but in the end I’m still the same person.”
EMBRACING A PASTIME
Thrasher’s grandfather took her hunting for the first time in the eighth grade. Whether she was in a tree stand, sitting in a blind or just walking a field looking for deer, she could feel the excitement pulsing through her. But it wasn’t the thrill of a kill that got her going.
“The part I liked best about hunting was pulling the trigger,” Thrasher admitted.
Sure, she’s bagged two or three doe during her career in the fields. But it’s the aspect of shooting the gun that she enjoys the most. Typically at a motionless target.
“I’m looking for a buck, but I’m not good at hitting moving targets,” she said with a laugh. “If they’re standing still, I can get them pretty good, though.”
To those unfamiliar with the sport, hunting and shooting rifle competitively would seem to be closely related. But they really aren’t.
“They’re completely different. I think it’s like comparing a rifle and a shotgun,” Thrasher said. “They’re both firearms but they’re completely different.”
While the two are different when it comes to the outcome, they go hand-in-hand for Thrasher.
“Hunting is a great pastime, and it’s a great way for me to bond with my granddad, my dad and my brothers,” she said. “So I enjoy it for that.”
OLYMPIC DREAMS … KIND OF
Thrasher always thought she’d make it to the Olympics one day … to ice skate.
“But about the time I started shooting was about the time I realized I wasn't going to make the Olympics in ice skating,” she said. “Since then, I haven’t thought about the Olympics.”
Growing up, ice skating was a way to clear her mind. She skated for about two years before she began competitive shooting in high school. Then, skating took a back seat to rifle.
“I started shooting and ice skating became more of a hobby and stress reliever for me,” she said. “I don’t think I ever competed much, but I enjoyed ice skating.”
She joked that she did know there was an ice skating rink in Morgantown before coming to West Virginia University but said it didn’t impact her decision.
Thrasher, though, did recall watching the Olympics with her brother, a competitive swimmer. She even said that she watched the finals of the shooting competition during the 2012 Summer Olympics, which aired about a month after she began shooting in high school. But she had no idea she’d be doing that one day.
“I really didn’t know anything that was going on,” Thrasher said of her reaction to watching the Olympic event. “It’s been quite the learning experience going through the path of qualifying for the Olympics.”
West Virginia's Ginny Thrasher will leave Tuesday for her first trip to Brazil. — WVU ATHLETICSWILL WORK FOR SUCCESS
Thrasher admitted that when she began competing in rifle that she “immediately” had interest in going to West Virginia to pursue a collegiate career in the sport. She attended some camps that coach Jon Hammond was running and began to plant her seed. The rest is history.
“We were fortunate that we were able to see Ginny at a number of our camps. I think what always stood out to me was her willingness to listen and to try things, and I felt I could tell very early on that she was going to be very coachable,” Hammond said. “The recruiting process goes on for a while so you’re able to watch the kids and follow them. You don’t just follow their results but how they interact in matches and how they handle different situations.”
Hammond has harped many times about how coachable Thrasher is and how she works for everything she has. That, he’s said, has been the biggest key to her success both on and off the rifle range.
“She definitely has a great work ethic and she’s willing to put in the hours and the work that you have to do for any sport or anything that you're doing,” Hammond said. “She's incredibly coachable and listens to all of the things that all of us as a staff have to say and probably her teammates, too. She’s willing to try things and she listens and takes everything in. She just has a great attitude. She has a great mental game, but she has all the things that we look for in recruits in terms of dedication, drive and determination.”
So, how, exactly, does a 19-year-old muster up the ability to be such a sponge?
“I’ve been told I’m an old soul. I just really want to master the sport,” Thrasher offered up. “I don’t care if I win or go to the Olympics. I know our coaching staff here is giving me the best advice and the best opportunity to achieve my goal.”
GOING FOR GOLD
Thrasher said she isn’t concerned about the outcome of her first try at an Olympic gold medal. But why should she be? She’s carried the same mentality all season. Why stop now?
“I’ve gotten to this point in my career by focusing on my process and myself and not having any thought about outcome,” she said. “I just want to continue that attitude going into the Olympics and all of my future matches.”
While her mentality hasn’t changed since day one, something else has. And it was a change she had to endure at a very crucial time. She got a new smallbore rifle about six weeks ago, right before the NCAAs.
“I think it was a pretty fast transition,” she said. “Some guns take six months to a year to fully get used to, so I expect to be changing things and tinkering.”
“It took two days,” Hammond said of the transition.
“There’s certain technical aspects of it fit her better,” Hammond said after talking about making the switch to a Bleiker rifle, a Swiss manufacturer which has become popular on the international circuit. “The timing was essentially out of our control. There’s a wide spectrum. Some athletes get very nervous to make a change and worry about it. Other athletes are very flexible. I think Ginny was somewhere in the middle. I think there were a few small worries, but I think as soon as she got it and started training with it, I think pretty quickly it was evident to her that it was better. It’s worked out pretty well.”
For Thrasher, and any shooter, getting to know your weapon and its little intricacies is a big deal. Both coach and shooter have agreed the success she’s had with her new gun has been for the better, and she’ll be trying it again in Rio.
“I love my two guns,” she said. “I treat them like gold, because they deserve to be treated like gold.”
And if all goes well again, she’ll have some more gold lying around when she returns to West Virginia.
