then quit. But before you do, you should really think and pray about it and fi nd out if that’s really what you want to do.”
That contemplation was
all it took to restore the spir- it, drive and competitiveness Hancock had always found in this sport.
“Rebekah’s
whole point about ‘if you don’t like it then quit,’ wasn’t that at all, but trying to get me to see it in a different way,” Hancock states. Though Hancock had
evolved, the opinions oth- ers had did not, with many feeling that they had seen this star fi zzle. Those doubt- ers fueled him all the way to London and that’s why the London gold will always be the one he cherishes most. “Basically because it
showed everyone that doubted me, who had no belief in me, that they were wrong,” asserts Hancock. “The doubters re-energized me. The fi rst Olympic ring I got, it didn’t really matter if I wore it or how I wore it, as it was something trivial. Now, with the 2012 Olympic ring, I always make it face towards me, so I can read it when I hold my hand up and I see gold medalist written on it. That reminds me that this one was for me. This one wasn’t for everyone else. This one was to prove to myself that I could do it and prove everyone else wrong.” Admittedly, Vinny has had
no greater love and appre- ciation for this sport than he does right now and it is one of the main ingredients fuel- ing his desire for continued perfection at the 2016 Olym- pic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Now living in Fort Worth, Tex- as, his deepest conviction
lies in both providing for his sport and his family, and he won’t be satisfi ed until both are well taken care of. “I’ll be satisfi ed with
what I achieve after, fi ngers crossed, I get to Rio and get a third gold medal,” Han- cock says. “I’m happy with what I’ve done now, but I really feel like that I can go and win this third one and cement my place in history with the greatest of all time. I think that would be a huge platform, not just for me per- sonally, but for the sport as a whole to show off what my sport is, who I am, what this sport has done for me and what this sport has turned me into. I’m an American boy, and this is what I do. I grew up in the south, ma- tured in the military and the Olympics are the greatest sporting spectacle in the world and there’s nothing better than going out there and showing off what you can do.”
Besides, with all the suc- cess he’s had, his kids are glutton for more. Every time he leaves for competition, they inquire as to whether he’s going to win another gold medal. “What am I go- ing to tell them? No? Not hardly. Every time I do, they love it. They hold the medal, they jump around, wear it for a while and then they are like ‘When are you going to get another one daddy?’ They don’t know yet that it’s just not that easy.” On the road to Rio, he hopes he can align the sport and create the energy nec- essary so that the next gen- eration after him might be able to make a living in this sport similar to the way he and Kim have done.
“I’m about promoting
my sport like crazy,” he ac- knowledges. “I want these kids to actually be able to make a living coming up. If you truly love the sport, you want to do it and you want to keep doing it forever if you possibly can.
More people
should have that opportu- nity. Should it really take the success that Kim and I have had in order to do that? I don’t think so. It’s impor- tant to me that I give back to this sport that’s given me so much.” Could he have dreamed
that at age 26, he’d be the king of the shotgun world? And yet with so much ac- complished, so much to still attain? “That was my dream,” said Han- cock. “Was it a fi g- ment of my imagi- nation at the time? Perhaps. We hadn’t won a gold medal in 20 years in Skeet when
that dream began and it was the only one the U.S. had ever one in my sport. It’s dif- fi cult to think that you can even get to the Olympics let alone win a gold medal, let alone win a second one.” And as Rio comes into sight, what expectations does he have? “I don’t expect to just be
there, I expect to be on that top spot. If you don’t have that expectation going down there, then you don’t de- serve to go down there.”
Vincent with wife Rebekah, and daughters Bailey and Brenlyn July 2015 | USA Shooting News 41
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