Russell Mark

Russell Mark

Medal record
Representing  Australia
Men's shooting
Olympic Games
	1996 Atlanta	Double trap
	2000 Sydney	Double trap
Commonwealth Games
	2006 Melbourne	Double trap
	2010 Delhi	Double trap

Russell Andrew Mark, OAM (born 25 February 1964 in Hoppers Crossing, Victoria (Australia) is an Olympic Champion Shooter. He won the Olympic gold medal in double trap at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He also won an Olympic silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In total he competed at six Olympic Games. 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012. The only Australian Summer Olympian to compete in more is Andrew Hoy, who competed in seven Olympiads.

With his win in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 Mark became the first shotgun shooter in the history of the sport to win all four of the world major individual titles: World Cup, World Cup Final, World Championship and Olympic Games. After the Sydney Olympics in 2000, he completed the set of silver medals in all four majors as well. American, Kimberley Rhode, remains the only other clay target shooter to share this honour of being both grand slam gold and silver medallists.

Mark is also a world renowned professional clay target shooting coach.

Mark is a dual World Individual Champion (1994, 1997) and dual World Team Champion (1998 and 1999). He won individual World Cup gold medals in Los Angeles, USA (1991) this was the first ever World Cup individual gold medal by an Australian in any Shooting discipline, Lonato, Italy (1992), Munich, Germany (1994), Lima, Peru (1999), Sydney, Australia (2000) and Perth, Australia (2003). At the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne he won a gold medal in men's double trap.

In August 2007 in Munich, Germany the International Shooting Sports Federation inducted him into its Hall of Fame as the greatest double trap shooter of all time. This was an accolade he shared with fellow shotgun shooters Luciano Giovannetti (trap men) - Italy, Kimberly Rhode (double trap and skeet women) - USA and Susan Nattrass (trap women) - Canada.

In 1997 Mark was honoured with the Order of Australia Medal for services to sport.

Personal life

Mark was educated in Ballarat, Victoria at the Brown Hill Primary School (1969 - 1974)^[1] and Ballarat East High School (1975 - 1981).^[2] He completed a Diploma of Business Studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (1982 - 1985),^[2] and worked in the real estate industry as a real estate valuer from 1985 until 1997.

In 1997 Mark started working for Melbourne radio station 3AW as a sports presenter. In 2002 he commenced a role as a sports commentator on ABC radio where he worked for the next 13 years on the breakfast show with iconic media personality Red Symons. Mark retired from radio work in 2016.

Russell Mark worked for Australian television Network Channel 7 as a commentator at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Mark owns and is a director of two hotels in his home town of Hoppers Crossing, Victoria and is a director of an entertainment clay target shooting business, Go Shooting Pty Ltd.

Mark was an Athlete's Representative on the Australian Olympic Committee's Athletes Commission from 1997 until 2004. He served as an Executive Board Member on the Victorian Olympic Committee from 2005 until 2012. He was also a Board member for Shooting Australia on two occasions from 2007 to 2009 and from 2011 to 2013. He has been an official Ambassador for the Carlton Football Club (Australian Football League) since 1997.

Since 1999 Mark has written a monthly column for the Australian Shooting Magazine the Australian Shooters Journal.

Competition shooting career

Mark's career includes an individual Olympic Gold and Silver Medal, 2 individual World Championships, 6 World Cup Championships and 2 World Team Championships as well as 39 Australian National Open Championships (current record holder). His first Open Australian Championship came in 1980 as a sixteen-year-old junior competitor in Perth where he also set a new Australian Open Record. He had a run of twenty consecutive years from 1988 to 2007 where he won at least one Australian Title each year.

In September 1992 at a major tournament in Tamworth, NSW, Mark became the first Australian to hit more than one thousand targets in succession. He finished the competition with 1177 hits in a row breaking his own Australian record set in January 1992 in Canberra of 859 consecutive hits.

In 1997 he won the men's double trap World Championship in Peru with a new World Record.

In 2004 Mark attended the Athens Olympic Games working for the Australian Olympic Committee as an Athlete's Liaison Officer.^[3] Also during 2004 he controversially took the position as the personal coach to the Indian marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore who went on to become India's first ever individual Olympic medalist at the Athens Olympics by winning a silver medal.

In 2006 Mark competed at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games where he won a gold medal. He participated in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing where he finished 5th in Olympic men's double trap. He declared in 2010 that he would attempt to make his sixth Olympic Games as a competitor at the 2012 London Games. On 7 June 2012, Mark was named in the Olympic team.^[4]

As well as Mark's six Olympic Appearances he also contested a total of six Commonwealth Games (1990, 1994, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014). He competed in the open individual ISSF World Championships on 22 occasions. (1986,1987,1989,1990,1991,1993,1994,1995,1997,1998,1999,2001,2002,2003,2005,2006,2007,2009,2010,2011,2013,2014). This is a record for any Australian shotgun athlete.

Mark retired from international competition at the 2014 ISSF World Championship in Spain.

Marks' home shooting range was the Werribee-Victorian Clay Target Club. He was made a life member of the club in 1996.

In March 2009, Mark was inducted into the Australian Clay Target Association's Hall of Fame as its youngest ever member.

Mark has been a Global Ambassador for the world's leading firearm manufacturer, Beretta Italy, since 1986.

Olympic results
Event	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012
Trap (mixed)	15th 144+47	9th 144+49	Not held
Trap (men)	Not held		13th 120	13th 113	—	—	—
Double trap (men)	Not held		Gold 141+48	Silver 143+44	—	5th 136+45	20th 128

References

External links

• Russell Mark's Profile pdf