by Mary Rupert
Lydia Paterson, who returned to Kansas City, Kan., on Wednesday after competing in the Olympics, has positive memories of her trip to Rio de Janeiro.
“It was the experience of a lifetime getting to meet all the Olympic athletes,” Paterson said. The 19-year-old competed for the United States in the 10m air pistol competition, but did not win a medal.
While there were some media reports about a few of the buildings in Rio not being totally complete before the Olympics, Paterson did not have that experience, and said, “Our rooms were great, the cafeteria was great.”
A 2015 graduate of Piper High School in Kansas City, Kan., Paterson currently is a student at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kan. Her parents are Ron and Letha Paterson of Kansas City, Kan.
Paterson, one of the youngest members of the U.S. women’s Olympics shooting team, had been to many World Cup events, but this was her first Olympics, and it was “a different type of pressure,” she said.
She has been under pressure in many national and world events previously. She was the 2014 National Junior Olympic Champion. At the Munich World Cup in 2015, she was eighth. At the U.S. Olympic trials the first week of June, she won by 24 points, qualifying her to go to Rio.
“The pressure (at the Olympics) was definitely different, but I tried to do my best and thrive at it,” she said.
Paterson was 29th in the field of 44 competitors in the qualifying rounds for the women’s 10m air pistol in the Rio Olympics. A second U.S. athlete, Enkelejda Shehaj, who lives in Naples, Fla., came in 40th. The gold medal for the event was won by Russian athlete Vitalina Batsarashkina.
Paterson got her start in the Wyandotte County 4-H Shooting Sports program when she was 7 years old, and went with her family to shooting events.
She competed in the 4-H shooting sports program until age 18, when she “aged out” of the program.
She said she is thankful to her family, friends, support group, and her college for allowing her to compete and travel.
“My mom and dad, brother and grandparents were always there every step of the way, and my coach (Cody Owsley),” she said. “I’m definitely thankful for their support. Without them I would not have had the experience of going to Rio.”
She plans to stop by Piper High School and thank the teachers who supported her, she said.
Paterson now is focused on college, and the fall semester starts this month. She is majoring in biology at USM and may eventually go into something in the medical field, such as physical therapy.
As far as competing in shooting events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, she said she wasn’t sure. “I don’t know what my future will hold right now,” she said. She plans to take some time off and reevaluate.
She offered some advice for other young athletes in Wyandotte County who may want to go to the Olympics: “I would definitely say hard work and dedication is the No. 1 things that get any Olympians to the games. You have to put in the time and effort to your sport and chase your dreams and not be afraid of failure – really going for it, no matter what the challenges might be.”