Paris Olympic 2024: Penny Smith wins bronze in women’s trap shooting
Penny Smith knew her Tokyo Olympics failure would need to be addressed as she survived a three-for-one shootout to make the trap shooting final, before clinching a coveted bronze medal.
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Camperdown trap shooter Penny Smith conquered the demons of a Tokyo finals collapse — and endured a bizarre spat with officials over her trademark Timberland shooting boots — to do her tiny Victorian town proud with yet more Olympic glory.
Smith lives on the family dairy farm with parents Kim and Michael helping milk 140 cows while juggling two part-time jobs and her shooting career.
Only days after Camperdown road racer Grace Brown hurtled through the cobblestoned streets of Paris, the western Victorian country town with a population of just 3300 was celebrating the second of Australia’s 14 Paris medals.
Shooting is a sport where mastering of nerves nailing targets under suffocating pressure in finals is the difference between despair and glory.
And 29-year-old Smith knew her Tokyo failure would need to be addressed as she survived a three-for-one shootout to make the six-person final, then outlasted three other competitors to claim bronze.
“I had to dig deep. I did it the hard way to get into the final and I was really pleased to get in and knuckle down and get the job done. Tokyo was really disappointing. I shot 13 of 25 in the final and still to this day I have never watched the final,” she said.
“It’s been a lot of hard work. You ride the highs and lows in every final and coming from Tokyo I changed guns to a Perazzi, I did a lot of mental training, and I filled myself with positive vibes and positive people.”
Smith is a true Camperdown local, working behind the bar at the Commercial Hotel and selling clothes at RB Sellars in nearby Warrnambool when not helping her parents on the farm.
Mum Kim was the groom for equestrian Andrew Hoy in the 1984 Olympic Games, with Camperdown’s five-time Olympian Bill Roycroft a local legend.
“Grace moved away a while ago, but we grew up as younger kids together so it’s really great to bring home two medals to Camperdown,” Smith said.
“It’s wonderful. I am sure we will get to celebrate Grace’s success as well which is phenomenal. We have such a rich history in Camperdown with the Roycroft family so I am not sure what is in the water, but it’s something special.”
As for that extraordinary footwear furore?
Smith had said entering the Olympics she was known as “the girl with the boots” given she never competed without her trademark blue steel-cap Timberland work boots.
They make her feel connected with the earth and “grounded” but in a remarkable piece of official over-reach she was banned from wearing them in her competition.
Rocking a pair of white Nike high-tops she put those distractions aside to nail target after target and secure Australia’s first Olympic medal since Rio in the grand tradition of Michael Diamond, Russell Mark and Suzie Balogh.
“I wasn’t able to wear the Timberlands. I wore some Nike high tops. We had to change. It was a jury decision, a political decision which I am not going to go into but I wasn’t able to wear them. I had to accept that and wear more of a dress shoe for the Olympics,” she said.
“They are classed more as a boot than a sneaker so we ran with the Nikes. I could have really let it get under my skin but we went down the street, got what we needed and came out the next day and got it done.
“But I will be bringing out the Timberlands again. I love my boots and they are part of me but the Nikes did the job.”
Now while Australia’s athletes are booted from the village within 48 hours of competition her reward after competing on the Chateauroux Shooting Range south of France will be to spend the second week of the Olympics in the Paris athletes village with her teammates.
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Originally published as Paris Olympic 2024: Penny Smith wins bronze in women’s trap shooting
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