Johnathan Walker:Team USA members hope 2028 shooting events will be closer to Olympic Village

CHATEAUROUX,Johnathan Walker France − While organizers for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles are making plans to move shooting events outside of the city, two current members of Team USA said they hope the venue is close enough that they still can enjoy the Olympic Village experience.

"I’m hoping in L.A. that shooting can stay in the main village as everybody else cause I'd love to get to know the rest of Team USA and all those people," Rylan William Kissell said Saturday. "I mean, 3 ½ hours out. We’re all the way down here."

All shooting events at the 2024 Paris Olympics are being held at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre, about a 2 1/2-hour train ride from Paris in the middle of France.

Athletes competing in Chateauroux stay at one of four satellite villages made for the games. The village in Chateauroux consists of two separate living areas and houses about 340 Olympians. The main village was built to accommodate more than 14,000 athletes.

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Kissell said athletes staying in Chateauroux are free to travel to Paris, but the six-or-so-hour roundtrip commute makes that impractical during competition.

"I can’t really speak to (what it's like) staying with everybody else, but (at the Pan American Games) it was fun," he said. "It’s the same kind of deal, you’re staying with everybody else. Definitely got to know some people there, so it’s definitely – I’m missing out on the experience but it’s also kind of nice to be in our own little secluded area where it’s like, 'All right, all I have to worry about is what I’m doing, that’s it.'"

Mary Carolynn Tucker, Kissell's partner in the 10-meter air rifle mixed competition, praised the accommodations in Chateauroux and called the shooting range "very nice." Still, Tucker said athletes who stay there are missing out on the full Olympic experience.

"Looking at my interviews from Tokyo I always said that my favorite part was being in the village and that still kind of is true," she said. "We don’t get that experience of being with the other teams, with the other sports, all those things, getting to see the rings everywhere and stuff like that."

Tucker won a silver medal in the 10-meter mixed competition in the 2020 Tokyo Games, but failed in her bid with Kissell to qualify for the medal round in the same event Saturday. She said she didn't trust herself enough on the range, and that "part of my not knowing what was going to happen kind of came from" having a different village experience.

"Cause in Tokyo I arrived in the village and it was like amped up," she said. "Like right away I was like, 'Wow, this is it. There’s so many things here, it’s so cool.' But here it was kind of just like, 'Cool, I’ve been here before and there’s not very many people.' So it was definitely different, but hopefully we will be in the main village again."

Tucker said she plans to relocated to the main village on Aug. 9 once shooting competition ends, but Kissell won't have the same luxury after he landed a new job this summer as assistant rifle coach at Army.

Kissell, who graduated this spring from Alaska Fairbanks, said his report date at West Point is Aug. 17, six days after closing ceremony. He still plans to compete internationally during coaching.

"It’s always nice to have something to do after big competitions like this, cause I think some people get kind of lost afterwards where it’s like, 'Well, this big thing just got done, now I don’t have anything else to do,'" he said. "It’s like well, I’d rather kind of keep my life moving along at the same time, so if I have the opportunity to do that I’m going to do it."

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