That medal you earned in London had you smiling greater than perhaps any other medal you’ve won to date. Can you please explain what the medal meant to you and your shooting career?
That’s a really tough question to answer—to be completely honest, my first
thought when I looked down at the monitor displaying the results and saw that I was bronze was, “Ok, still good enough for bronze. Thank God that’s over with.” Yes, I was happy and smiling, but it was more out of relief that I got through the day and was able to walk away with a medal. That was the toughest competition I’ve ever had to shoot in my life. The last four years have been extremely hard on me and my family for a variety of reasons. I had to overcome so many things just to make the Olympic team and once I made the team, it seemed that if something could go wrong, it did. On top of that, there was no hiding from my past Olympic history and I knew that there was a good chance I’d be in the same position once again. I knew that millions of people were going to be watching to see if I could overcome the past. I don’t like to think that way, but you can’t run away from the reality of it. I knew walking into London that my preparation was less than ideal because of all of the setbacks and obstacles and my success was going to be largely dependent upon my experience and toughness. I can’t really say what the bronze means to my shooting career. It’s too soon to have a good perspective on it. Right now, though, it’s a symbol of my toughness. I know that very few other people in the world could have dealt with and overcome all the things I had to overcome and walked away with a medal.
Photo Teddy Smith Year in Review 2012 | USA Shooting News 15