Women’s Coaches Corner
By Frances Strodtman-Royer
My Experience as a Woman in International Shotgun Competition
Women shotgun athletes
have overcome signifi cant challenges to compete at the Olympic level and have contributed to the US Team medal count. Women in coaching face similar chal- lenges, aspiring to help our young female ath- letes achieve their Olympic dreams. Hopefully this arti- cle will inspire more women to step up into coaching and run youth programs that will build our pipeline of future Olympians. In 1974 at the age of 19
and a college sophomore, I earned a position on the fi rst U.S. Women’s Trap Team to the 41st World Shooting Championships in Switzer- land. Back then there was not a category for Juniors, let alone female Juniors, so I competed against the wom- en of the world in the event of bunker, or to some, trench shooting. I had the great ad- vantage to have my brother, Walter Zobell, on the Men’s Trap Team. We were the fi rst brother/sister combo on a U.S. Team.
During the second week
of July, 1974 the U.S. Na- tional Championships for Shotgun and the selection of the Shotgun Team for the World Championships was held in Chardon, Ohio over four wobble traps. Over 25 women competed for a po- sition on the fi rst Women’s
Women’s Trap Team World Champions: (left to right) Connie Tomsovic, Frances Strodtman and Carol McClure at the 1982 World Shooting Championships in Caracas, Venezuela.
Trap Team. Women also competed for positions on the Women’s Skeet Team the following week. With only three positions open on each team, the competition was fi erce. Imagine how you would
feel after traveling across the Atlantic Ocean to com- pete in an international competition, and you were told you could not compete, because you were a woman. This happened to me in May 1980. I was a member of the U.S. National Shoot- ing Team for women’s trap. The French Shooting Federa- tion would not let me shoot
in their Grand Prix of Paris, even though every male competitor at the event con- sented to allow me to shoot. The reason for the denial was that they were not let- ting their own Women’s Trap team compete, and therefore I was not allowed to shoot as well. I never did fi nd out why they would not let their team compete. I do know that the world of com- petitive shooting for female competitors was quite chau- vinistic back then. Last September, I attend-
ed the 51st World Shooting Championships to coach and watch my son, Dale
Royer, compete in his fi rst World Championship. It was marvelous to watch so many women shooting Trap, Skeet and Double Trap. I felt sad- ness however, seeing that women still shoot Double Trap in the world, but since it is not an Olympic event, the United States does not fi eld a women’s team. At moments I felt like I
was back in 1970 not seeing a woman representing the United States in the Double Trap event. Now my efforts and focus are for my son. A lot has changed in 40
years, even the event itself has changed with the new
July 2015 | USA Shooting News 13
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