American Ginny Thrasher Wins First Gold Medal of Rio Games

Team USA's Ginny Thrasher has brought home the first gold medal of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The 19-year-old shooter from Springfield, Virginia, scored 208.0 in the women’s 10-meter air rifle competition on Saturday, leaving China’s 2006 world champion Du Li with the silver medal. Du’s teammate, Yi Siling, took home the bronze.

Thrasher scored 10.5 on her first shot of the final elimination round and 10.4 on her second, which put her comfortably ahead of Du, a two-time gold medalist.

As a student at West Virginia University, Thrasher became the first freshman rifle shooter to win both individual NCAA titles and to earn a spot in the Rio Games less than a month later.