{"id":3566,"date":"2020-06-18T04:37:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T18:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/in-sight-with-laetisha-scanlan\/"},"modified":"2024-07-24T15:11:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T05:11:12","slug":"in-sight-with-laetisha-scanlan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/in-sight-with-laetisha-scanlan\/","title":{"rendered":"In Sight with Laetisha Scanlan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ustream.tv\/embed\/recorded\/126974777\" style=\"border: 0;\" webkitallowfullscreen allowfullscreen frameborder=\"no\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>Tokyo Olympics? She\u2019ll be apples<\/h2>\n<p>By Greg Campbell<\/p>\n<p>Picking and packing apples alongside her dad in a Tynong orchard, 66 kilometres south east from Melbourne\u2019s CBD, is not where you would expect to find a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist preparing for her second Olympic Games<\/p>\n<p>But for Australian Olympic women\u2019s trap shooter, Laetisha Scanlan, it\u2019s all part of her plan to rise to the medal podium at the Tokyo Olympics. With the Olympics postponed by 12 months, the closest Scanlan will get to Japan at present is via a fuji apple, named after Japan&#8217;s sacred mountain, Mount Fuji.<\/p>\n<p>Apple picking became a necessity after her part-time job at a dry cleaning business in Seddon was suspended because of COVID-19. Afterall, there is a mortgage to pay after she and her partner Sam Waters bought a three bedroom home in Emerald earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>But part-time work, either picking apples or operating the dry cleaning front desk, has become part of her life to ensure that trap shooting doesn\u2019t become all-consuming.<\/p>\n<p>Scanlan has also been assisting Olympians Russell and Lauryn Mark with their corporate shooting business but has reduced her hours after recognising there was no escape from the sport having to be at the shooting range when she wasn\u2019t training or competing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI realised, at the start of last year, that I needed more balance in my life so it wasn\u2019t so shooting orientated. And I think the perfect thing to do was to have a part-time job that has no relationship with the sport so you can switch off for a bit. I think it keeps you more mentally fresh rather than thinking about shooting 24\/7,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s one of those sports where it gives you the most amazing opportunities to travel and see the world and compete at an elite level. But I think I realised after Rio, that I needed a little more balance,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Even now with social restrictions being eased and ranges opening for use, Scanlan is taking a slow run-up to the Tokyo Games next year to ensure she peaks at the right time and not burn out prior to the competition.<\/p>\n<p>With 13 years of international experience, both as a senior and junior trap athlete, Scanlan knows what it will take to reach her pinnacle goal of an Olympic gold medal.<\/p>\n<p>But shooting is a fickle precision sport where the same six finalists could shoot three events on the same day and produce a string of different winners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes, it\u2019s just one target,\u201d she says knowingly after personally experiencing the impact of one shot.<\/p>\n<p>Having won a gold medal with Stacey Roiall in the women\u2019s pairs at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and winning her first ever World Cup gold medals in 2013 and 2014, Scanlan attended the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and thought she was eliminated at the end of the qualifying rounds until Canadian Susan Natrass capitulated at the end of her final 25 targets.<\/p>\n<p>Scanlan qualified for the final after a shoot-off against India\u2019s Shreyasi Singh before winning the semi-final round and then the gold medal match.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went in there thinking I\u2019ve got nothing to lose. I\u2019m going to give it my all and, being the underdog, I managed to win the final,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Then, four years later at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Scanlan had to survive another qualifying round shoot-off against New Zealand\u2019s Natalie Rooney to reach the final.<\/p>\n<p>In the final, which doubled as her 28<sup>th<\/sup> birthday, Scanlan opened a healthy three target lead but it evaporated in the second half of the 50-shot final as Northern Ireland\u2019s Kirsty Barr levelled the scores with Scanlan needing to hit her last target to win.<\/p>\n<p>When the target exploded in a cloud of pink, Scanlan celebrated with a triple fist-pump while \u201cTeam Teash\u201d roared and celebrated wildly in the grandstand.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4885 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/9656606-3x2-xlarge.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"862\" height=\"575\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pressure was indescribable. To have all my friends and family there and to be shooting off against a good friend in Nat Rooney, the New Zealander, I just felt sick,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was so glad I won, not so much for me as an individual, but probably more for my family and friends because I felt like I had the weight of the world on me and I\u2019m glad when it counted that I could perform and give that to them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>While Scanlan has been a top line international trap athlete for over 10 years, the course of her life could have taken a very different direction after competing at her first international championship as a junior in 2007 while in Year 12 at Haileybury College in Keysborough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI came dead last. It was probably the best thing that could ever happened to me. It made me work harder and I guess lit a fire to do better. If I\u2019d given up and said it was too hard, then I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She stuck at it and captured her first senior World Cup title in 2013 in Al Ain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt proved to myself that I was capable and worthy of being on the team. That started a really exciting journey for me because I had my own self-belief,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Her journey took her to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games where she was the top qualifier but finished fifth behind her gold-medal winning Australian team-mate, Catherine Skinner. \u201cI just didn\u2019t perform high enough to get myself into the medal opportunities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s Tokyo Olympic selection trials was always going to be a high pressure event with Skinner, Scanlan and fellow Victorian Penny Smith contesting the two available selection positions.<\/p>\n<p>Smith\u2019s consistency earned her the automatic team selection position leaving Scanlan and Skinner duelling for the single remaining spot<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing into the last selection event I knew it was going to be tough. We have such depth in our women trap shooters. It\u2019s never going to be an easy run. It\u2019s never ever going to be a free card into the Olympic team. I put a lot of pressure on myself and I\u2019ve learned that\u2019s probably not the best thing to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so grateful that the selectors have chosen me and given me the opportunity to go to Tokyo, and I really hope that I can perform at my best because I know my best is medal worthy,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPenny shot an amazing selection series and all credit goes to her. She definitely deserved the first spot. She made that a very, very easy decision. But the second spot was always going to be difficult and always going to be at the discretion of a panel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Tokyo Olympics also sees the introduction of the Mixed Pairs where she is likely to be partnered with James Willett, while Smith is destined to be shooting alongside NSW\u2019s Tom Grice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always been jealous of the swimmers that have so many opportunities to compete at the Olympics. And it was so hard going into Rio knowing you had one opportunity and that was it for the next four years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s (the mixed pairs) is such a great opportunity for us as Australians to win medals. Penny and Gricey and myself and James, we\u2019re world class. We\u2019ve both won world championships, so I think we are all going to go in quite favourable with the other teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scanlan says the postponement of the Olympics will help her and Willett develop a strong pairs partnership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think chemistry is quite important. In an individual event I don\u2019t really care if anyone hits or misses a target next to me. I do care if James hits or misses a target,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we have shot more together internationally, we kind of know how each other rolls now. We\u2019re very ying and yang. James and I are very different shooters and different personalities but somehow, we gel perfectly together.<\/p>\n<p>And then there is the silent understanding when at the height of competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of chat (on the range). There is just <em>the look<\/em>,\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n<p>Scanlan believes her Rio Games experience will be hugely beneficial for Tokyo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was a baby. I was so fresh, and I went in there quite na\u00efve and it\u2019s taken me three to four years after Rio to realise that I have developed a lot as a shooter and I\u2019ve grown up,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m looking forward to Tokyo so much now because I know what Rio was, I know how I performed, I know why I did this, and I know why I did that. Now coming into Tokyo, I have so much knowledge and so much experience and I think it can only benefit me positively,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>And hopefully she will be picking off targets as they soar across the Tokyo Olympic range just as easy as plucking apples off a tree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tokyo Olympics? She\u2019ll be apples By Greg Campbell Picking and packing apples alongside her dad in a Tynong orchard, 66 kilometres south east from Melbourne\u2019s CBD, is not where you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-sight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3568,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions\/3568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}