Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1527947
30 maconmagazine.com | October/November 2024 Vincent Hancock believes everyone can try shooting sports, and encourages you to experience them for yourself. To give it a shot in Macon, check out Ocmulgee River Gun Club. How would you explain the complex sport of skeet shooting to a 5-year-old? I've heard you say, "golf with a shotgun." With my kids, I just explain to them that I shoot targets in a sequence, and there [are] a lot of movements that I had to make in order to hit the targets. Sporting clays is like golf with the shotgun, in that you have different stations and everyone has different targets. Skeet shooting is more standardized, and it takes someone that is willing to put in an enormous amount of work doing the same repetitive motion over and over again. Before the Olympics, you obviously competed in and won the World Championships for skeet. How were those environments different? I would argue that the world championships are possibly even harder to win, because there are so many more people competing against you. However, the Olympics only comes around once every four years and it's the pinnacle of all sports, so the opportunity to get gold there is unlike anything else! How did this year's games in Paris compare to your past Olympic experiences? This year's Olympic Games in Paris was my best Olympic experience to date. The difference being, I had my wife and my daughters there watching me and supporting me. I've had family watching me before, but to have my daughters be old enough to truly understand what this experience meant, and how hard I've worked to get there, was something that I hope they will remember for the rest of their lives. I know I will never forget their faces after winning the gold. Does your neck hurt from all those medals? Do you have a special display at home? Funnily enough, my medals have been stacked inside my nightstand drawer for the last six months! Adding the last two from Paris has definitely made the drawer a little heavier to open! Tell us about who Vincent Hancock is – on and off the range. I try to remind all of the athletes that I work with, as well as my daughters, that no matter how good you are at something, you need to be thankful for everything that you have. I love to hunt and fish, play golf, and spend time with my family. With my businesses actively growing, I don't have time for much else! We've been in Texas for almost 11 years now, but I'll always be a Georgia boy at heart. I watch every Georgia football game every year, pull for the Braves to win, and believe it or not, I miss those darn pine trees! Texas has been a great place for my family and I, but there will always be a place for me in Georgia. I think with my parents still living in Eatonton, there's probably not much that people don't know about me! But if they don't know it already, my favorite thing in life is my family. My wife and daughters mean everything to me, and I'm thankful that I get to share experiences with them every day. What's an unexpected way that you train? One way that I may differ from other athletes is that I implement distraction training before all major events. It's the only way that I can find to create a feeling of nervousness and a desire to not miss, like you experience in a major competition. This is where "be comfortable being uncomfortable" comes into play. ABOVE Hancock competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, taking home his fourth gold medal for men's skeet. His wife and daughters were in the stands cheering him on.