This week, we're off to Châteauroux, a city in central France. Here, the National Shooting Sports Center hosted the Olympic shooting events, including skeet. What is skeet? It's a target shooting sport in which participants use a shotgun to shoot 11-centimeter clay discs launched from machines set up 40 meters away from the athletes. Here, we see Britain's Amber Jo Rutter (left), silver medalist, and American Austen Jewell Smith, bronze medalist.
Let's get down to basics. Rutter is holding a shotgun, but not just any shotgun. Aficionados will recognize the legendary DT11, from the Italian company Beretta, founded in 1526. Chosen by countless hunters for its reliability and precision, this so-called "over-and-under" model (the two barrels are one on top of the other) comes here in a sporty carbon fiber version. In Paris, 11 of the 12 medals at stake in the skeet events were won by shooters using a Beretta rifle, the DT11 in most cases.
On her face, Rutter wears a pair of glasses specially designed for shooting. These red, or rather "vermilion," lenses are a regular favorite, offering excellent depth perception and blocking blue light to reduce eye fatigue. Against a green background, they enhance contrast and improve vision of red or orange targets, such as the clay discs used in skeet shooting. In bad weather, however, yellow lenses are more effective in combating poor visibility.
Rutter sports a black shooting vest. Emblazoned with the acronym of the International Shooting Sport Federation, ISSF, this garment performs several functions. Its two large front pockets can hold a large quantity of ammunition. Leather reinforcements on the shoulders help to make firing more comfortable by reducing recoil. There are also fabric strips that can be customized, to match a manicure, for example. Skeet shooting and fashion sense are not mutually exclusive, after all.
Note finally that these shooters aren't wearing watches. This absence is all the more notable as Smith has a stark tan line on her left wrist, indicating that she has removed her usual timepiece. Why, you ask? Doubtless because there is an ongoing debate as to whether the vibrations generated by rifle shots cause long-term damage to the movement of mechanical watches. Some don't think so. Others remove their watch or opt for a quartz model, which is far less fragile.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.