If fairy tales could turn into reality, Czech shooter Katerina Emmons must be the heroine.
At the Beijing Olympics, the 25-year-old blonde was crowned in women's 10-meter air rifle event on Saturday. She not only gained first gold medal of the spectacular sports gala, but improved both qualification and final Olympic records to 400 and 503.5 points respectively.
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Markswoman Katerina Emmons of Czech celebrates with his husband after women's 10m Air rifle final of Beijing Olympic Games at Beijing Shooting Range Hall in Beijing, China, Aug. 9, 2008. [Xinhua]
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"It was a real break," said the excited Emmons who, with tears in her eyes, turned around immediately after learning the results to hug and kiss her husband Matthew Emmons, attracting many photographers to snap photos.
Matthew, who had been sitting behind throughout her competitions both in qualification round and final, was a famous American shooter and Athens Olympic gold medalist.
The name Katerina Emmons became familiar to people this spring, when the newly wedded clinched gold medal in the discipline at the Good Luck Beijing World Cup, a test event before the Olympics, with an impressive final round of 105.9 points and a total of 504.9 points.
Better known with her original name surname Kurkova before marriage, Katy had spent seven years practicing swimming until her illness stopped her from going on. Bored from not being able to compete any more, she was suggested by her father Petr Kurka, a double world champion in three positions, to pick up rifle at the age of 14.
The attempt was proved successful five years later, when the teenage shooter earned a gold medal on the star-studded international arena of 2002 World Championships.
Two years later, she grabbed a bronze at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she met Matt.
A commentator for the Czech Television, the kind-hearted Katy witnessed tragedy of the legendary marksman, as he, just one shot away from his second Athens Olympic gold, made a stunning mistake by firing at the wrong target in the final, got a big fat zero and plunged to the eighth.
Then the physical therapy major made her "best decision".
"I felt sorry for him," she said, "I just needed to tell him how I felt and ... it doesn't matter."
That was the first time the girl plucked up to talk to the world champion. Before that he seemed aloft to her.