First Gold Medal of 2016 Rio Olympics Goes To American Shooter Ginny Thrasher

An American teenager born in Rome, NY captured the first gold medal awarded at the 2016 Rio Olympics..

Virginia 'Ginny' Thrasher earned gold in the women's 10M Air Rifle Event on Saturday. Thrasher shot an Olympic-record score of 208.0, in what was the 19-year-old's Olympic debut. A pair of former gold-medalist Chinese shooters took silver and bronze in the event - Du Li and Yi Siling.

Thrasher is a West Virginia University student and NCAA champion. In a May interview with Women's Outdoor News, Thrasher explained that her father was in the Air Force and due to several relocations she moved nine times before the ninth grade. She was born in Rome but graduated West Springfield High School in Virginia, she said, and attributes her love of the shooting from early-age hunting trips with her grandfather.

[Via Olympic.Org]