Elizabeth Callahan
Elizabeth "Libby" Callahan is an American sport shooter. She is a four-time Olympian, and a two-time medalist for pistol shooting at the Pan American Games. She also worked as a police officer in Washington, D.C. for almost three decades, before retiring in 2003.
Shooting career
Callahan, born in Columbia, South Carolina, started out her sporting career in 1980, when she learned shooting with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington D.C. She went on to become a five-time women's police revolver champion in various local competitions, until she took up international, Olympic-style shooting, after joining the U.S. Army reserve in 1985. Three years later, Callahan became a member of the U.S. national shooting team, and had achieved numerous titles and top-ten finishes at the USA Shooting National Championships. She captured three more medals in air and pistol shooting at the 1992, 2001, and 2005 ISSF World Cup series. She also competed for all pistol shooting events at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but she neither reached the final round, nor claimed an Olympic medal.Sixteen years after competing in her first Olympics, Callahan qualified for her fourth U.S. shooting team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, by winning the sport pistol from the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Fort Benning, Georgia.
At age fifty-six, Callahan also held her distinction of being the oldest female and most experienced member of the U.S. Olympic team, and consequently, surpassed the record set by equestrian rider Kyra Downton. She competed only in the women's 25 m pistol, where she was able to shoot 287 targets in the precision stage, and 288 in the rapid fire, for a total score of 575 points, finishing only in twenty-fifth place.