Word: goldings
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...spotlight only every four years, when the Olympics rolls around, and even then, something extraordinary - like back-to-back epic chokes - must take place for the sport to snare a headline. Ever hear of Americans Glenn Eller and Vincent Hancock? Of course not, even though they each won shooting gold in Beijing. "For the mass media, all they see is the Olympics," Matt says. Guilty as charged. "People don't get to the other 20 competitions a year. I've won many tournaments by scoring big on the last shot. I've had big leads and held them...
...only it had hit the darn target. Four years ago, Emmons committed one of the most stunning gaffes in Olympic history. A few shavings away from his second gold of those Athens Games, Emmons shot at the wrong target, dropping him from first to eighth place. On Sunday, Emmons closed in on redemption. Once again, he entered the last shot of the 50-m Three Position (standing, kneeling, lying down) event with what seemed like an insurmountable lead. A minimum score of 6.7, on a 10.9-point accuracy scale, would have won him the gold. Nobody had scored below...
...crowd screamed as if witnessing a horrific crash. Then joy filled the hall. Because of yet another Emmons error, the host nation's very own Qiu Jian would win the gold medal, with Emmons finishing fourth. In Athens, Emmons also gave China a gift. Because of his gaffe, rival shooter Jia Zhanbo lucked into gold. Give this guy a room for life in the Forbidden City...
...cope, Emmons can take comfort in history. Last time around, a big plus emerged from the pileup: he lost the gold but won the girl. After collapsing in Athens, Emmons retreated to a bar with his buddies. He needed to drown his sorrows. A Czech shooter, Katerina Kurkova, came up to Emmons to offer condolences. "The way he handled that loss seemed very cool to me," Katerina, 24, says. "And I'm not blind. He's pretty cute." They started spending more time together on the shooting circuit and got married last summer...
...Both shooters should show a little stress. But the whole ordeal seems to just bounce off them, as if they each have bulletproof vests. Katerina's gold, and the $100,000 sponsor bonus it delivers, surely helps (though another $100,000 from Matt would have been nice). Their post-Olympic dream: build a log cabin, preferably near a lake in Minnesota, and raise some kids. They're quite the happy couple, but make no mistake - there's something missing. "It's like two plus two is not adding up to four," says Matt. "It's adding...