Last Shot
Inside a black box in her Kalispell, Mont., home is Jamie (Beyerle) Corkish’s gold medal from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Six years after she won it in 50-meter three-position rifle shooting, the hardware still stirs her emotions.
Now retired from her competitive rifle career, Corkish, 34, has a wall of medals earned in rifle competitions stretching back to her youth, including The American Legion’s Junior 3-Position Air Rifle National Precision Championship in 2002.
She got involved with the sport at age 6 when she and her older brother practiced shooting BB guns in the basement of their home in Lebanon, Pa. Two years later Corkish was shooting competitively. Her success earned her a spot on the University of Alaska rifle team and an Olympics debut in Beijing in 2008. She was also a USA Shooting athlete.
A member of The American Legion’s 100th Anniversary Honorary Committee, Corkish recently talked to The American Legion Magazine about her experience with shooting sports and what it took for her to come back stronger in the 2012 Olympics after missing a podium spot in Beijing on her last shot.
What did you enjoy about The American Legion’s air rifle competition?
It’s the top 15 junior shooters, so it’s a very competitive match. When you’re going into a match like that with only 15 people, you get to know a lot of the competitors really well, so it’s an intimate match. You’re at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and when you’re a high school student it’s just cool to go out there. So it’s awesome there’s that partnership with USA Shooting and The American Legion. The pressure is high in a match like that, and learning to be successful in shooting is all about learning to deal with pressure. Anytime you can get yourself into a match like that – any competition that’s high-pressure is definitely a benefit.
The awesome thing about the Legion is that you get a scholarship out of it. It adds some pressure to the match that there is an opportunity to win a scholarship that is supported by the Legion, which is just amazing for youth. With this experience, you’re not just winning another trophy, you’re winning more of an opportunity for yourself in the future.
What did shooting sports teach you?
You know, perseverance is probably one of the biggest things you learn through this sport. You’re going to fail, you’re going to have your ups and downs, and you have to learn to get over those. When you become successful in anything, sometimes it’s hard to continue to be successful. When you’re ranked No. 1 in the world it’s sometimes a lot harder to compete than when you’re the one chasing the top. I have learned determination, self-motivation. Shooting is all about your own ability to get yourself to the range and want to train for extended periods of time. I trained five to six days a week, about four to six hours a day on the range. I did off-range training as well. It’s big-time self-motivation. You’re not getting with your team to go practice; it’s all about you having that self-motivation to get there. A lot of those skills I don’t think I would have learned if I wasn’t a competitive shooter.
What does it take to become a good marksman?
Shooting becomes such a mental sport. You’re trying to control your heart rate, you’re trying to use your breathing technique to calm yourself down, and it’s difficult. You don’t realize how much goes into such a sport where you’re just standing still, or laying down, or kneeling. It’s such a different kind of athleticism. You’re trying to hit a pencil point at 10 meters, a period on a piece of paper. So that becomes a mental game. I think what makes a good shooter is to be able to control all of those things.
Discipline is huge, along with time management. There are days you don’t want to go to the range. There’s so many different choices today, especially for young kids. You can go play video games, play different sports, be on the computer, watch television. You’re choosing to put your time into shooting and not those other things. It’s not necessarily discipline in matches. It’s the discipline to go practice.
How did you overcome the disappointment of the 2008 Olympics to move forward?
It’s so easy to view failure in the wrong way. In 2004, I was ranked No. 5 in the world but didn’t make the Olympic team. That was probably my first major failure in shooting sports. I was in college still, and my national coach at the time had to sit down with me and persuade me to continue in this sport. After 2008, it was a similar feeling. I never thought, “I’m not going to continue on with this.” It was more, “I’m determined not to let this happen again.” I can get to the final and shoot a great last shot, and that’s what I worked on. You learn so much more from your mistakes than you do from your successes.
What did you focus on for the next four years to make a comeback in 2012?
For the next four years, I realized that the last shot in the Olympic final is a very difficult shot to take. So every final I ever made or practiced I visualized myself at 2012, shooting through those emotions. I would put myself in that scenario so I would have a more successful shot there. And it paid off for sure. In 2012, my last shot in the final was a 10.8, which is 0.1 points lower than a perfect shot. It was definitely worth the four years of working for that last shot.
Describe what was it like to stand on top of the podium holding the U.S. flag.
It’s still emotional to think about it. I’m not up there just as Jamie Corkish. I’m up there representing Team United States of America. Just having that time to hear your national anthem and really think about all the people who helped you succeed and get you to that point is what I think is special about it.
Veterans are part of those hundreds of people on the podium who I thought about, who helped me win that medal. Every person I came across had some type of influence on me; with the American Legion program, those veterans had a huge influence on me. I wouldn’t have gotten that college scholarship if it weren’t for those veterans willing to give their time to the community.
How do you advocate for the sport today?
I do some personal coaching of junior shooters. I also do my own clinics around the country and teach hunters education. I’m a huge advocate of safety in shooting sports, and I think any time I can teach someone what guns did for me is important. I have a lot of success in life because of guns, and it’s a great opportunity for me to pass that message on. I got a college scholarship because of guns. I have an Olympic medal because of guns. There are a lot of positives in my life that happened because of guns, and in our world right now I think that’s a great message to get out. Shooting sports is probably one of the safest sports for youth.
Cameran Richardson is editor of The American Legion Dispatch.