Joking Aside,
By: Jessica Delos Reyes Manager of Media and Public Relations
There’s a phrase John Joss continually
uses to describe himself: A happy-go-lucky kind of guy. Thing is, he really is. And he means it. “Because I’m the best ever and I’m
super awesome at everything,” he says with a hearty, sarcastic laugh after cracking a few jokes. “I am a pretty happy-go-lucky guy, but there’s nothing on earth that has frustrated me more or made me happier than this sport. It demands all of your at- tention, you can’t blame it on anyone else — it’s an individual sport. So you’re only as good as you want to be — in a sense — but sometimes you want to be really good and it’s just not working out for you and it’s really frustrating. And then there’s those times you put in all that effort and things go your way, then you love it.” Jokes aside, Joss’ rise in the Prone Rifle
scene is no laughing matter. The Texas native had of course grown up shooting, but had never touched an international- style competition rifle until he came to the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit in April 2013. Later that year, he was named USA Shooting’s Paralympic Athlete of the Year. Just a month into his shooting career, Joss, 32, won a bronze medal at the Interna- tional Paralympic Committee World Cup in Turkey and he continued to rack up medals throughout the year. “I went from the first year where I won
just about everything we had – everything I went to, I medaled in everything – and then the next year, I knew the sport and trained harder and I didn’t win hardly anything!” Joss said exasperatedly. “I don’t know if that was just the natural ebb and flow of shooting. Right after the Olympic Games, the best shooters take a break and shoot- ers you’ve never heard of start making Finals and start winning stuff; and then as the competition season really gets into it, the really good players come back and then you don’t see those people anymore. That’s not where I’ll be. I just need to train harder
24 USA Shooting News | September 2015
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