PARIS: Vincent Hancock is not bragging when he says he has achieved pretty much everything in skeet shooting and will be competing more against himself than the field at the Paris Olympics.
Coming from a three-time Olympic gold medallist and a five-time world champion, it is rather a case of stating the obvious by the 35-year-old American.
"My expectation for every event that I go to is always gold," Hancock told Reuters in a video call from north Texas, where he runs a shooting range, on his target in Paris.
"It may not be what I get, but at the same time, that's what I'm going for. That's what I'm actively training every day for."
It sounds a reasonable expectation considering Hancock has struck gold in three of his four Olympic appearances.
A 15th place finish in Rio denied him a hat-trick but he righted the wrong in Tokyo and is now gunning to become only the sixth athlete to win four Olympic golds in the same individual event.
Men's skeet, where competitors use shotguns to break clay targets flung into the air, has become much more competitive over the last decade, and it was "getting harder and harder to win", he observed.
"I'm not really worried about necessarily beating them," he said.
"I'm trying to go out and beat myself. I'm trying to go out there and be the best version of myself I've ever been."
"I know that if I truly do my best and I am at my peak level, then perfection is absolutely attainable.
"If you don't miss, you can't be beaten."
His rivals will be disappointed if they expected Hancock to be complacent.
He considers his failure to make the final of the Lonato World Cup in June a "wake-up call", which has been followed by "a few little epiphany moments."
He has fixed his grip since and resumed his "distraction shooting" sessions, as he usually does before every Olympics.
Such a session involves Hancock shooting the clay target, while random objects, like tennis balls, are thrown at him and loud music is played to distract him.
"It's honestly just a crazy mixture of everything you can possibly think of," he said with a smile.
"So loud music, car horns going off, people yelling in your ear, walking beside you, banging metal trays near your head..."
"My wife comes out making all kinds of faces and saying all kinds of stuff, and jumping up and down – anything they can do to make me miss."
"It's helpful, because there's no way to mimic the nerves and the pressure that you're going to feel in the Olympic Games, and that's about as close as I've found to be (in that mindset)."
Hancock has decided to quit after the 2028 Games in Los Angeles and will explore the business aspect of the sport.
He already mentors nearly 500 kids every week at his range and four of his proteges will be competing in Paris, including his USA teammates Austen Smith and Conner Prince.
"Honestly, I think I've accomplished most of my goals," Hancock said.
"I feel like, for whatever reasons, God has blessed me with the ability to go out and break targets and to shoot a gun really well.
"To provide others with the ability to come out and do the sport that I love, that's kind of where my career has been transitioning to.
"How can I make a bigger impact than just being an athlete and just going out and trying to win medals?"
"I want to have opportunities to build more shooting ranges around the United States." - Reuters