Missouri native’s initial fear turns into an Olympic appearance

By Kyle Schmidt

One Pattonsburg native is fresh off her 2024 Olympic appearance for trap shooting, a journey that began when she was just 12 years old and first picked up a gun.

“My stepdad got me started when I was 12. I had never shot a gun before and I was terrified to try it,” said Staff Sgt. Rachel Tozier in the Army marksmanship unit. “I shot every gauge the first day and I was addicted.”

Tozier found success early on in American trap and had an opportunity her senior year of high school to try for international Olympic trap shooting.

“I wrote on a marker board that I wanted to captain the women’s all American team for ATA and I wanted to go to the Olympics some day,” Tozier said. “Those were my two goals in my senior year of high school.”

She captained the Women’s All American team that year, and 14 years later, made her first Olympic appearance.

The 32-year-old began competing consistently in international trap after joining the Army in 2017. After Olympic qualifications, she was in the top two of women’s trap shooters and made it on the boat ride into Paris.

“The pouring wet boat ride was miserable but cool at the same time,” Tozier said. “That was the only interaction we had with all the others so that was cool.”

For the actual competition, the shooters had to go three and a half hours away from Paris, but Tozier still was able to see some athletes she was hoping to.

“I didn’t go up and ask for pictures with anybody or any of that, just was like, ‘Hey, there’s Jayson Tatum.’ ‘Hey, there’s Steph Curry.’ ‘There’s Kevin Durant,’” She said. “The downside was we didn’t get to see any of the actual performances because we were on the boats while they were happening.”

The 2024 Olympics was Tozier’s first time being on the stage and she said the nerves got to her more then she thought they would. The practice shots were much less frequent then her usual day to day and it led to a performance she was disappointed in.

“I was pretty disappointed, I had been shooting much better than how I performed at the games beforehand,” She said. “So getting nerves definitely played a factor.”

She finished in a three-way tie for 15th, but due to the final rounds score, Tozier’s official ranking was 18th. With goals to make it to three more Olympics in the future, she is determined to learn from this experience.

“Keep working the mental game and put myself in as many pressure situations as I can,” Tozier said. “There’s no way to replicate the nerves or pressure that I felt at the Olympics until the next Olympics.”