Born in 1981, Matthew Emmons is one of the best shooters in the history of American shooting. Across his 23-year career, the four-time Olympian has won numerous titles, including one gold, one silver and one bronze at the Olympic Games, plus a gold and bronze medal at the World Championships.
But he might be better known for the Olympic gold medals he did not win than the one he did. His astonishing performance in the finals of three consecutive Olympic Games made him jokingly admit that “maybe he is more famous in China than in the United States”.
But why would that be?
In 2004, a 23-year-old Emmons stepped onto the Olympic Games shooting range for the first time. At first, everything went smoothly. Even though his gun had been tampered with, he still won the men’s 50m rifle prone gold medal with a gun borrowed from a teammate. When recalling the experience in an interview with Alaska’s Capital City Online newspaper in 2016, Emmons joked: "I never found out who the saboteur was, but I'd like to know so I could shake their hand and say thanks."
Two days after winning that gold medal, Emmons stood on the stage of the men's 50m rifle three-position final, during which he had established a huge advantage, with a three-point lead over the second-placed athlete prior to the final shot. To secure gold, he had to make what was a relatively simple shot.
Emmons raised his rifle, took aim, and breathing in and out slowly to steady his rhythm, slowly squeezed the trigger.
The bullet hit the exact centre of the target – a perfect shot!
But as the scores came up, there was a gasp from the crowd.
Zero!
Emmons looked at the score in disbelief and asked for a review, but the score was confirmed. Incredibly, Emmons had hit his opponent’s target, not his own and that counted as a miss.
He blew the three-point lead, dropped to eighth, and handed Chinese shooter JIA Zhanbo the title.
It goes without saying, that Emmons did not deliberately miss the mark – it was a pure mistake – an error of judgement, but he bore the consequences for his error.
In the Bible, the words in Hebrew and Greek for “To miss the mark” are translated into English in the word “sinner”, and that is exactly what a sinner is; someone who misses the mark that God has set.
We all do that, sometimes unintentionally, sometimes deliberately, but whenever or however we sin, we bear the consequences for our actions.
I wonder whether Matthew Emmons ever looked back on that one careless shot and longed to erase his error. Gold was within his grasp and he missed it in an instant.
The good news is that we can have all our failures erased. Through His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ has erased all that we have done that takes away our relationship with God and has restored a prize far greater than Olympic gold. He offers us eternal life and peace with God.
That is a prize that is well worth having!
DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (27/04/25)
Written by STEPHEN TRESEDER
All photos courtesy of Unsplash
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