Virginia Thrasher


Virginia "Ginny" Thrasher is an American sports shooter who won a gold medal in the women's 10 meter air rifle at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She won the first gold medal awarded at the 2016 Olympics.
Thrasher's gold medal came during the first time she had competed in the Olympics, beating two Chinese athletes, previous Olympic gold medalists Du Li and Yi Siling.
Before the 2016 Olympics, Thrasher wanted to be a figure skater. She has said she was never any good and by her freshman year of high school, she realized she had no future in it. She switched sports in 2011 after going hunting with her grandfather.

Personal life

Thrasher grew up in Springfield, Virginia, and graduated from West Springfield High School in 2015. She is the daughter of Roger and Valerie Thrasher and has two brothers. She graduated from West Virginia University in 2019, where she majored in biomedical engineering.

2016 Rio Olympics

10m Air Rifle

Thrasher received the first gold medal awarded at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She qualified 6th in the first round of the women's 10m air rifle competition with a score of 416.3. She went on to win the final of that event with an Olympic Record score of 208.0, one point ahead of silver medalist Du Li of China.

50m Rifle Three Positions

Thrasher missed the finals of the 50m rifle three positions by one point, finishing with a score of 581.