Imagine having an uncontested layup to win a basketball championship at the buzzer — and then somehow missing that shot and losing the game. Now picture that sporting horror happening twice. That’s the kind of heartache U.S. shooter Matt Emmons, 31, has suffered. In Athens, he won one gold but then committed one of the most stunning gaffes in Olympic history when he was about to clinch his second: he shot at the target of one of his competitors, to the right, and fell to eighth place. In Beijing, he entered the last shot with a commanding lead, but a wild misfire dropped him to fourth. “The only thing I can figure is that my finger touched the trigger and set it off,” Emmons said in Beijing the next day. “I walked away and was like, Crap, it happened again.’” Can Emmons avoid another epic misfire in London?
50 Olympic Athletes to Watch
From Qatar to South Africa, Russia to the U.S., TIME takes you around the globe to meet the extraordinary men and women you’ll be seeing this summer at the London Games
Matthew Emmons
Shooting, U.S.
Full List
Athletes to Watch
- Rebecca Adlington
- Tony Azevedo
- Kenenisa Bekele
- Yohan Blake
- Usain Bolt
- Veronica Campbell-Brown
- Mark Cavendish
- Oksana Chusovitina
- Tom Daley
- Phil Dalhausser
- Gabrielle Douglas
- Kevin Durant
- Brady Ellison
- Matthew Emmons
- Jessica Ennis
- Allyson Felix
- Missy Franklin
- Tony Gunawan
- Bahiya Al-Hamad
- Trey Hardee
- Im Dong Hyun
- Larisa Iordache
- Yelena Isinbayeva
- Lolo Jones
- Lin Dan
- Liu Xiang
- Ryan Lochte
- Holley Mangold
- Ous Mellouli
- Carolina Mendoza
- LaShawn Merritt
- Alex Morgan
- Fabiana Murer
- Aliya Mustafina
- Sally Pearson
- Michael Phelps
- Paula Radcliffe
- Kimberly Rhode
- Dayron Robles
- Caster Semenya
- Hope Solo
- Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi
- Katie Taylor
- Allison Schmitt
- Aisuluu Tynybekova
- Kohei Uchimura
- Kerri Walsh
- Rau’shee Warren
- Jordyn Wieber
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