If ever there were real- life parity for the hit movie series of The Hangover, it’s Glenn Eller. In know- ing him, you don’t have to stretch the imagination
much to envision nights full of debauchery, sordid tales full of raunchy humor and non-stop laughs.
Those tales are best left
untold. But then there’s the other side. The counter to all of that is the Glenn Eller that is an Olympic champion LQ 'RXEOH 7UDS DQG WKH À UVW American male in the shot- JXQ GLVFLSOLQH WR PDNH À YH Olympic Teams in his career. The antithesis of all the she- nanigans is having friends, teammates and competitors revere you for your friend- ship and speak with respect and admiration of all that you’ve accomplished and the man you are. Those closest to the Katy,
Texas native use words like loyal, smart, devoted, benevolent and unique. “As a friend, Glenn is in
your corner at all times,” said former Double Trap shooter and two-time Olym- pic Team leader Dwayne Weger. “He is that guy who absolutely would give you the shirt off his back. Glenn
is Glenn. He is hard-headed, stubborn as a mule, a math- ematical genius, a perfec- tionist and one of the best friends a guy could have!” You call that the over-
VKDGRZLQJ RI DQ\ Á DZV Asked if all the fun he’s had doing what he does has cost him, Eller quickly discredits any notion. “No, if I didn’t enjoy what I was doing, I wouldn’t be doing it. If you can’t go out there and have a little fun while you’re doing something, why do it? But when it’s time for the match, it’s time for the match. If you can’t have dinner and hang out with friends, why bother? You can sit at your house and do nothing. I’ve learned just as much from hanging out with friends and competitors as anything else in this game.” The achievements on his career resumé would not suggest any hindrance. For 17 years, he’s been at the top or near it, recording 14 World Cup medals since 2001, two World Champion- ship crowns and four World Champ medals overall to go along with an Olympic gold medal and three other op- portunities.
“Glenn is one of the most
unique people that I have ever met,” said two-time Olympic gold medalist and former U.S. Army teammate Vincent Hancock. “He’s one of the smartest individuals I know and on top of that, he’s one of the best shoot- ers I have ever seen. He and I share a very similar shooting style in how we approach the target as well DV WKH À W RI RXU VKRWJXQV This lends itself perfectly for he and I to discuss differ- ent perspectives on targets even though we don’t shoot the same game. He has been a friend of mine for over 10 years now and I can honestly say that I don’t know many people that I can trust or talk to the way I do him. He will go down as one of the best athletes this sport has ever seen, and it’s a pleasure as well as an honor to call him my friend and teammate.” In 1996, Eller was the
À UVW $PHULFDQ WR ZLQ WKH prestigious British Open Sporting Clay title. He began shooting at eight years old under the direction of Jay Herbert. He has also trained with Olympian Dan Carlisle, who, along with his family,
is who he credits for all he’s achieved in the sport. Eller made his Olympic debut in 2000 at the age of 18, but came down with food poisoning, courtesy of an Australian ham salad sandwich, and tied for 12th. In 2004, a year in which he vowed to avoid culinary mis- haps by sticking to McDon- ald’s food in Athens, he was 17th after being informed before the competition of what proved to be a false positive drug test. (OOHU·V À UVW XQHYHQWIXO
Olympics resulted in his À UVW JROG PHGDO LQ But the shotgun he used to win the gold medal was lost en route to a March 2011 event in Chile, and he struggled while adapt- ing to a new gun. He lost the automatic U.S. slot in Double Trap to his Army teammate, Staff Sgt. Josh Richmond, but won a place on the team when a second berth for the London Games opened up in the spring of 2012.
He struggled mightily LQ /RQGRQ À QLVKLQJ
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which he believes was the result of a hastened oppor- tunity to train properly, given the rush and exhaustion
Winning the Game of Life & Sport By: Kevin Neuendorf
March 2016 | USA Shooting News 39
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