From hunting pheasants in rural Nebraska to shooting on the international stage, Gary Anderson has hit the bullseye.
The Nebraska native is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in shooting, winning the 300-meter event at both the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games. He was in Seward over the Fourth of July to help dedicate the John and Darlene Wood Weapons Room at the Nebraska National Guard Museum.
Anderson was born in Holdrege and grew up in Axtell, graduating from Axtell High School in 1957. He still owns part of the family farm, which he rents out.
“If he (the renter) doesn’t call, there was no hail,” he said with a smile.
Anderson’s father and uncle were avid fishermen and hunters, sparking Anderson’s interest. He got his first BB gun around age 10 and started hunting in junior high. He read everything he could find about shooting and that led to his Olympic dream.
“In high school, I decided I would win Olympic gold,” he said. “That was audacious.”
He started shooting competitively as a senior in high school, which is later than most begin, he said.
“Everyone started with a shooting club and a coach and equipment,” he said. “No one knew about it in Kearney County.”
Anderson used an old carved-up rifle as his target rifle and learned by dry firing because ammunition costs money.
“I could buy one box of bullets a week,” he said. “That would last about 30 minutes on the first day.”
When he graduated from high school, the local paper asked him what his ambition was.
“To become the greatest rifle shooter in the world,” he said.
Growing up in a small town, Anderson knew what it was like to work hard and learned good work habits. That transitioned well into his training.
“If I wanted to win, I had to work harder than anyone else in the world,” he said.
Anderson attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a year before joining the Army to pursue his marksmanship dreams.
He joined the marksmanship unit at Fort Benning, Georgia, before joining the Nebraska National Guard.
“I talked my way into the marksmanship unit,” he said. “They gave me a chance and it worked out.”
He spent most of his enlistment in that unit. When he was in Nebraska, he trained on the range in the armory basement in Hastings.
In 1964, Anderson qualified for the U.S. Olympic team and was the favorite to win gold. The Olympics were in Tokyo that year, and the Russians were the team to beat.
A shooting competition is 120 shots, taken in three different positions. Forty are in the prone position (lying on one’s stomach), 40 are kneeling and 40 are standing. The 300-meter target was only 10 centimeters.
“It’s a contest of nerves,” Anderson said. “If your nerves fail, the results go down quickly.”
Shooting sports are one of the oldest competitions in the Olympics. A French pistol national champion introduced them in 1896, and they’ve been in every Olympics since then except 1904 and 1928.
For the 2021 Olympics, there are 390 quota places, split 50/50 between men and women. Marksmen from 149 countries attempt to qualify, Anderson said.
He competed in the 300-meter free rifle event, which has since been discontinued. Anderson said it was an expensive event, with ammunition costing $1.25 to $1.50 per round.
The rifles are single shot firearms that weigh 14 to 15 pounds, he said. Shooters used metallic sites because optical sites weren’t allowed.
He won handily, beating the second-place Russian by nine points. Another American finished third that year.
The Tokyo Olympics were not Anderson’s first international competition. In 1962, he shot in the World Shooting Championships in Egypt, winning four golds and dominating the Russians.
When Anderson got home from Tokyo, the city of Hastings threw a massive parade, he said.
After the parade, he returned home and, because it was pheasant season, grabbed a shotgun and went hunting.
“I missed the pheasant,” he said with a grin, adding that that is the story his father always told.
In between, Anderson moved to California for graduate school and joined the California National Guard.
At the 1966 World Shooting Championships in Germany, Anderson won three more golds.
He was the favorite again for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He said there was extra pressure because of the success he’d had on the international stage.
A random draw for shooting position put Anderson next to the top Russian shooter.
“I shoot left handed and he shot right handed. We were eyeball to eyeball,” Anderson said.
They were neck and neck through the prone and kneeling segments of the competition. Standing was the final discipline.
“About halfway through, his coach started yelling at him,” Anderson said. “He had broken.”
He said he felt numb on the medal stand.
“You see people where the joy comes out immediately,” he said, adding that he just got it done.
Coming into competition, his goal was to beat the Russians’ record of two golds and six world championship. Anderson finished with two golds and seven world championships.
He retired from competitive shooting after the world championships in 1969.
Anderson has degrees from Hastings College and San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Following his competitive career, Anderson thought about getting into politics. He served as the Kearney County treasurer and was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 1972.
In the late 1970s, Anderson was elected to the administrative council of the International Shooting Sport Federation and eventually became a vice president. He retired from international service in 2018.
He returned to Washington, D.C., and worked for the National Rifle Association as executive director of general operations.
His job included developing safety, training and competitive programs.
In 1996, Anderson was back at the Olympics in Atlanta, helping organize the shooting competition.
He served as the director of civilian marksmanship for the U.S. Civilian Marksmanship Program from 1999 to 2009.
“It’s been a great career,” he said. “The sport has been really good to me.”
His son and daughter both competed in shooting sports. His son was second in the NCAA shooting for the University of Kentucky. He has invited a scoring system using computer vision and electronic targets, Anderson said.
Anderson has written a book about shooting with vintage rifles called “Target Shooting With Vintage Military Rifles.” He said it’s a book about the tradition of military marksmanship and is designed to pass knowledge on to the next generation.
“I’m grateful I had the experience,” he said. “It should be passed on to others.”
