Giovanni Pellielo, the Shooting Bishop, Takes Aim at Eighth Olympics

He became an ordained bishop. He celebrates Mass and prays five times a day in the church he built in his home, which sits a short drive from the shooting range that bears his name. It is there that his monastic lifestyle has turned him into one of the most decorated shooters in the world, the winner of four Olympic medals and dozens more in world and European championships.

Over the next few weeks, he will bear down on making yet another Olympic team.

“There are two types of sports persons,” Pellielo said in an interview in Italian in April. “The first type must satisfy their needs: ‘I want the medal. I need the medal.’ I’m not among them.

“The second type is people who love it. I love sport.”

He added, “The fire that burns inside you is love. And love never goes out. And that’s why I’m still here at 51, because I’m continually stimulated by this love, by this fire that never stops.”

Pellielo is among the best competitive shooters in history, and owes some of his longevity to the sport he chose as a boy, which unlike many Olympic disciplines allows longer-than-average careers. Only four other shooters have appeared in eight Olympics, and none has won more than three medals. Considering Italy’s 30 Olympic trap and skeet shooting medals are the most of any country, and the country has 24,000 registered shooters, Pellielo is arguably the top gun of a shooting nation.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/22/sports/olympics/tokyo-olympics-shooting-johnny-pellielo.html