Richard Bruce Faulds MBE (born 16 March 1977 in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

, Surrey), is a retired English

sport shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such ...

, who competed for Great Britain in the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

and won the men's

double trap Double trap is a shotgun shooting sport, one of the ISSF shooting events. Participants use a shotgun to attempt to break a clay disk flung away from the shooter at high speed. The layout of double trap shooting is similar to that of trap shooti ...

. He also competed at the 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. Born into a family who then ran a stud farm in

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, Faulds was then raised on the family-owned Owl's Lodge Farm in the

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

village of

Longparish Longparish is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. It is composed of the five hamlets of Middleton, East Aston, West Aston ,Forton and Longparish Station that over time have expanded and effectively joined up to become one village. ...

. On his tenth birthday, Faulds's father Bruce bought him some shooting lessons, with Richard hitting 17 out of 25 clays in his first attempt. His father built him a range on the family farm, but just before finishing third in his first world junior championship, his PE teacher said that his hand–eye co-ordination was very poor. It was discovered that Faulds suffered from a weak left eye, which was corrected by special dot-to-dot exercises with such good effect that he now shoots left-handed. Faulds competed internationally for Britain at the age of 13, and was a world junior champion when he was 16. Three years later, Faulds competed in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics finishing fifth, and became the 1997 European champion. After working at the West London Gun Club for three years as an instructor, Faulds became a full-time shooter, and qualified for the 2000 Sydney games after shooting a then double trap world record score at a World Cup meeting held again in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, Georgia. Faulds shot a then Olympic record total of 143 in the preliminary round, and won his

Olympic gold medal Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

after a shoot-off at the Sydney International Shooting Centre, to become Britain's first shooting gold medal-winner since

Malcolm Cooper Malcolm Douglas Cooper, Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE, (20 December 1947 – 9 June 2001) was a British shooting sports, sport shooter and founder of Accuracy International. Competing in International Shootin ...

in 1988. At the

2004 Athens The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Olympics, Faulds came 13th in the

event, losing his title to Ahmed Al Maktoum from the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. Apart from his Olympic career he has also won numerous titles in the sport of English Sporting Clays and FITASC, both of which closely replicate the flight characteristics of live quarry species. His first World title came as a Junior in the FITASC discipline in 1993, a feat he repeated in 1994, 95 and 96 while also collecting Junior World Sporting titles in 1994 and 1995. Since joining the ranks of the Senior Class he has won the World Sporting Championships four times, (2000, 2002, 2006, 2008) the World FITASC Championship four times (2002, 2005, 2007, 2008) and the Beretta World Sporting Championship five times (1998, 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2010). He has also taken numerous domestic titles including the English Open Sporting (1993, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008) and the British Open Sporting (1998, 2005). Richard and Tanya, also a successful shooter in her own right live near Newbury in Berkshire along with their young son Charlie and daughter Lauren. In 2010 Richard and Tanya opened Owls Lodge Shooting School near

Barton Stacey Barton Stacey is a village and undulating civil parish, which includes the hamlet (place), hamlets of Bransbury, Newton Stacey, Drayton and Cocum, in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England, centred about south-east of Andover, Hampshir ...

. The ground contains Sporting,

Olympic trap Olympic trap is a shooting sports discipline contested at the Olympic Games and sanctioned by the International Shooting Sport Federation The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) is the governing body of Shooting at the Summer Olymp ...

Double trap Double trap is a shotgun shooting sport, one of the ISSF shooting events. Participants use a shotgun to attempt to break a clay disk flung away from the shooter at high speed. The layout of double trap shooting is similar to that of trap shooti ...

Olympic skeet Olympic skeet is a variant of skeet shooting, and the specific variant used in the Olympic Games. The discipline is sanctioned by the International Shooting Sport Federation. Two throwing machines at different heights launch a series of 25 targets ...

, Universal trench and Down-The-Line layouts. In 2011, Faulds won individual silver and team gold in the double trap at the European Shooting Championships in Serbia. On 16 December 2014, Faulds announced his retirement from competitive shooting, ending his career with five Olympic appearances, two bronze medals from the World Championships, a tally of five European medals (one gold, three silver, and one bronze) from the European Championships, an Olympic gold medal from 2000, and a world record in double trap, set in 1998.

Olympic results

References

External links

*
Richard Faulds profile at BBC Hampshire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faulds, Richard 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Guildford People from Longparish English male sport shooters Trap and double trap shooters Olympic shooters for Great Britain Shooters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2000 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2012 Summer Olympics English Olympic competitors Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain World record holders in shooting Members of the Order of the British Empire Olympic medalists in shooting Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in shooting Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Shooters at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Shooters at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games