Junior Shots
Katie Jacob: A Shot of Ambition
When asked what’s the
one word that best describes her, 16-year-old shotgun prodigy Katie Jacob said it’s ambitious. Not too soon af- ter the interview concludes, and you realize ambition and drive are the tenets leading her to uncharacter-
That drive and ambition
have led to some tough life decisions already. She got attracted to the sport to bring her closer to her whole family, but now it’s the very thing that keeps them apart. The desire to be the best led her away from her home
An unpopular decision at
À UVW DFFRUGLQJ WR 0RQLFD that got all that easier the more they got to know the Hancocks. “They adore Ka- tie as their own daughter,” she says. “Craig and Ted (Katie’s father) worked very close together on the de-
order to get to where she’s going. It’s hard to argue with the results thus far. She burst onto the scene last summer with a second- SODFH À QLVK DPRQJ -XQLRUV at Nationals and eighth RYHUDOO 6KH·G DJDLQ À QLVK second at the Junior Olympic Championships before go- ing to World Championships and making the Junior Fi- QDO LQ KHU À UVW LQWHUQDWLRQDO FRPSHWLWLRQ À QLVKLQJ VL[WK
Katie Jacob won bronze at the ISSF World Cup in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Photo by ISSF.
By: Kevin Neuendorf Director of Media & Public Relations
istic Skeet success at such an early age. “Katie has always said
she wanted to be an Olym- pian,” says Katie’s mom, Monica. “She has the abil- ity to understand and fore- see what it takes to believe in oneself far beyond what others can imagine. She has always been more ma- ture than her peers, and has the strength and wisdom to understand that it is a long hard road, but is willing to make the journey.”
and family in Michigan and right into the waiting arms of the Hancocks in Eaton- ton, Georgia.
Craig and
Susan now serve as surro- gate parents, helping raise DQG FRDFK D FKLOG À [HG RQ reaching the top. It’s a little something they know about given the success of their son Vincent, who will try and become just the sixth American ever to win three straight Olympic gold med- als in the same event.
60 USA Shooting News | May 2016
cisions that needed to be made for Katie. We learned how technical, educated and talented Craig was in the world of shotgun sport. Katie would need Craig’s expertise to improve by giv- ing her the fundamentals and psychology to achieve her dream. Katie and Craig hit it off from the start and they share a special coach/ athlete relationship.” According to Jacob, mov-
ing 823 miles from home LV D QHFHVVDU\ VDFULÀ FH LQ
She’d conclude her 2015 in the most impressive fashion \HW GXULQJ WKH À UVW VWDJH RI Olympic Team Trials in Tuc- son, Arizona, where she’d À QG KHUVHOI LQ WKLUG SODFH So impressive was her per- formance, she’d score the most perfect rounds (4) of any of the competitors. She sits nine targets back as we JHW VHW IRU WKH À QDO VWDJH RI Trials.
That momentum contin-
XHG LQWR WKH VHDVRQ·V À UVW World Cup of the year where she scored a bronze medal and stood on an internation- DO SRGLXP IRU WKH À UVW WLPH Earlier in May, she won the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany. “What distinguishes Ka- tie from some of the other
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