Photo Courtesy Alberta Handgun Association Facebook Page

By Tanner Smith

Sports

A Peace Region sharpshooter will have a chance to qualify for the Olympics in the fall

Aug 11, 2022 | 6:00 AM

A Peace Region sharpshooter is traveling all over the world thanks to her pistol talents.

Elizabeth Gustafson just recently returned from the Canadian Pistols Nationals where she placed on the podium five times, including one first-place finish.

Gustafson said her love of shooting is hereditary, and her mom was the one who introduced her to it.

“Well, I’m pretty sure like many kids it was my mom. My grandfather taught shooting in the Canadian Army so he taught her how to shoot and she taught us how to shoot and I just kept on shooting. She actually had been my coach for the longest time, getting some international coaching stuff there and helping me along.”

Gustafson said the first time she shot pistols competitively, was when she was only 16, and she is grateful to the Wapiti Shooters Club in Grande Prairie for giving her the opportunity to discover her passion.

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Gustafson added with her grandpa being a military man and the Wapiti Shooters Club teaching gun safety for hunting rifles, she did try them out, but she ‘just liked pistols more.’

Her favourite competition is the new mix rapid fire event, but for the Olympics, the 25-metre pistols.

Gustafson will have a full schedule this fall with her competing in worlds in October.

” I will be doing 10-metre pistol and 25-metre pistol, and they have a three-person woman 10-metre pistol team, so I will be on that team as well. That will be me and another lady from Alberta and then a lady from Quebec.”

She also has Americas in November, which will be her chance to qualify for the Olympics. “The Championships of The Americas is another really fun competition. It’s all of North America and all of South America. We’re going to gather in Peru this time and do the competitions that you do at the Olympics, to see if we can win a spot in the Olympics.”

Gustafson is looking forward to representing Canada this fall and hopefully adding to an already impressive summer. But she’s also hoping this story will inspire more youth in the Peace Region to ‘try fun things because you don’t know what’s out there.’