{"id":4838,"date":"2025-03-12T10:55:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T23:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/?p=4838"},"modified":"2025-03-12T11:15:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T00:15:56","slug":"olympian-dane-sampson-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/olympian-dane-sampson-announces-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Four-time Olympian, Dane Sampson, Announces Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dane Sampson, four-time Olympian, has announced his retirement from international rifle competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampson began rifle shooting at age 12, later fulfilling his childhood dream of attending the Olympics, competing in the London 2012 Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs long as I can remember, I always just wanted to go to the [Olympic] Games. I can remember saying that to dad, even before I had started shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShooting was really the only avenue that I could see to achieving that goal. I never thought of competing in any other sport because I had been in and around [shooting] my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Paris 2024 Olympic Games – L to R Team mate Jack Rossiter, Rifle Coach Petr Kurka, Dane Sampson<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A testament to his unwavering persistence and dedication to his sport, Sampson made four consecutive Olympic appearances, one of only twelve Olympians at the Paris 2024 games to represent Australia at four separate Olympic Games. He represented Australia at 2 Commonwealth Games, including the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, where he won a gold medal in the men\u2019s 10m Air Rifle competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on Sampson\u2019s career success National Rifle Coach, Petr Kurka said, \u201cWhile he aimed for Olympic success, his gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on home soil is a remarkable achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the 2018 World Championship Sampson shot a personal best of 1177 in the 3 position Rifle event to become the only Australian to ever qualify for a World Championship final in that event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampson\u2019s continued success and approach to competing has earned him the admiration of both the shooting community and his fellow competitors. As he highlights, \u201cI always feel a lot of respect from the other athletes around the world. Without those connections, I don\u2019t think I would have been able to keep going for so long. But I certainly wouldn\u2019t have had as much opportunity to progress technically and competitively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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He emphasised that the connections and relationships that the sport facilitated were a highlight of his shooting career, with Sampson proposing to his Austrian-born partner and fellow rifle competitor, Nadine Ungerank, in January. \u201cI don\u2019t think you can spend 26 years around a sport or community and not have developed some amazing relationships [through it]. I\u2019m even marrying one of them!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could easily say that 50% of the close friends that I have were met through the sport. It\u2019s not just through shooting, there are also connections through the institute [South Australian Sport Institute] as well as friends that are in other sports.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mapsed Cup, Hungary March 2023 – L to R Dane Sampson silver medallist, team mate Jack Rossiter, Rifle Coach Petr Kurka<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

After years of continued success and devotion to the sport, Sampson has now made the decision to retire from international competition. As he reflects, \u201cNow is the right time to step away\u2026. my priorities are changing, and I would like to be able to support my fianc\u00e9 more and just move onto the next part of life. I\u2019ve been doing the same thing since I was 10. So, it\u2019s a good time to do something different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst making the well thought out decision to step away from high-performance sport and international shooting, Sampson is looking forward to exploring other passions. \u201cMy passion for furniture making is on the same level as shooting. The goal now is trying to build my business and become a master furniture maker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite stepping back, Sampson will maintain some involvement in the world of shooting, helping with the South Australian Sport Institute\u2019s talent search as well as providing specialty coaching, to the up-and-coming rifle shooting talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Sampson highlights, \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of experience, and I\u2019ve had plenty of tough times as an athlete, so I\u2019m hoping that I can help some younger athletes, specifically, around keeping a positive perspective and staying motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal performance from Dane Sampson<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Sampson is grateful for the immense support that he has received throughout his career, highlighting, \u201cI would like to thank the community. I\u2019ve had a lot of support from a lot of different people for a long time. I\u2019d also specifically like to thank Shooting Australia and the South Australian Sports Institute; they\u2019ve always been very supportive and easy to talk to if I had a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is also a big, big thanks to Petr Kurka, my coach. I\u2019m sure it wasn\u2019t easy, but he never gave up on me even if it looked like I was in a lull, so I\u2019m incredibly appreciative to him for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on his fifteen years working with Sampson, Kurka, highlighted, \u201cDane will be missed in the team. His exemplary training ethic, discipline, and immense desire to succeed have set a standard for our future shooting talents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDane\u2018s offer to contribute to Australian shooting through coaching shows his commitment and character. I am honoured to have worked with him for so many years and to have been a part of his sporting journey. I hope he enjoys this next chapter in his personal life, which he has selflessly dedicated to sport for the past 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dane Sampson with coach, Petr Kurka<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Sampson also attributes a portion of his successful shooting career to his parents, stating, \u201cI\u2019d like to thank my parents as well. They\u2019ve been more supportive than I could\u2019ve possibly hoped for. I really couldn\u2019t have gone as far as I did without that support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampson\u2019s parents Robyn and Rod, who also play significant roles within the shooting sport, reflect upon their son\u2019s career and his decision to retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs parents, we never expected that Dane would achieve all that he has in his shooting career.  His goal, from a very early age, was to compete in the Olympic Games and his determination, persistence and dedication to achieve that goal (and so much more) is to be admired.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that Dane very much appreciates all the support he has received from so many along the way, all the opportunities the sport has given him, the friends he has made, the places he has travelled, the experiences he has had.  It has certainly been quite a journey he has taken us all on. We wish him all the best for the future – time for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shooting Australia commends Dane on his outstanding dedication and contribution to the sport, and the wider target shooting community. He will undoubtably continue to be a role model for future rifle athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Shooting Australia CEO, Adam Sachs, acknowledging Dane Sampson’s retirement<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Any media enquiries can be directed to: Jane Vella,<\/strong>SA Communication and Event Manager Email: <\/strong>jane@shootingaustralia.org<\/a><\/strong>
Mobile: 0407 859 197<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dane Sampson, four-time Olympian, has announced his retirement from international rifle competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4843,"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":"3647,1154,4527,1296,1093,1123","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838","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=4838"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4853,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4838\/revisions\/4853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shootingaustralia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}