Sagen Maddalena, who competed in shooting sports for the University of Alaska Fairbanks for six years, nearly medaled, but came in fourth place in the women’s 10m air rifle competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Monday, as she competed for Team USA in Chateauroux, France.
Maddalena, born in Woodland, Calif., started shooting competitively while growing up in the Golden State. She competed on the UAF Rifle Team from 2013-2018 and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2019.
She’s a four-time National Rifle Association First Team All-American in Air Rifle — 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2016-2017, and 2017-2018. She’s also a three-time NRA First Team All-American in Smallbore — 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18, a three-time CRCA First Team Aggregate All-American — 2016, 2017 & 2018, and NRA Second Team All-American in Smallbore in 2015.
Maddalena qualified for the eight-person final after placing seventh in the women’s 10m air rifle qualification round Sunday at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre, located 173 miles south of Paris.
Maddalena is an Army sergeant who is a shooter/instructor with the Army Marksmanship Unit international team. She is a two-time Olympian, having placed fifth in the women’s 50-meter rifle 3 positions (smallbore) competition at in Tokyo in 2020. Monday’s fourth-place finish was her first Olympic air rifle final.
Maddalena will compete next in the 50m rifle 3 positions competition on Aug. 1. In this event, she took a bronze medal in the 2023 world championships.
Winning the gold was Hyojin Ban of Korea. China’s Yuting Huang won silver, and Switzerland’s Audrey Gogniat shot for the bronze.
UAF has a storied shooting program. The president of the University of Alaska system, Pat Pitney, was the 1984 gold medal winner in the 10m air rifle.
Another former Nanook is competing on Team USA. Rylan Kissell is makes his Olympic debut this week, competing in Men’s 10m Air Rifle, Mixed Team Air Rifle and 50m Smallbore Rifle.
A native of Colorado, Kissell was a seven-time All-American, the 2023 individual air rifle champion, a member of the 2023 NCAA Championship team and the CRCA Most Valuable Shooter, during his years at UAF. He was the 2022 CRCA Shooter of the Year and had the first-ever perfect score at the NCAA Championships in 2023 in air rifle.