From UAF walk-on to silver medalist: Former Nanook sharpshooter’s inspiring journey to Olympic glory
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A former University of Alaska Fairbanks sharpshooter won the silver medal in the women’s 50-meter rifle 3 positions finals early Friday morning at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
With the second-place showing, Sagen Maddalena — named UAF’s Most Outstanding Female Athlete in 2018 — became the third former Nanook shooter to win an Olympic medal, joining Matt Emmons and Jamie (Beyerle) Gray. Maddalena’s score of 463.00 placed her just behind gold medalist Chiara Leone (464.4). China’s Zhang Qiongyue took home the bronze (452.9).
She just missed the medal podium with a fourth-place finish in the 10-meter air rifle on Monday to begin the Paris Games.
“This is really special,” Maddalena told USA Shooting. “There are no words to describe the opportunity coming to fulfillment.”
Maddalena scored a 593, including a perfect 200 in the prone position, for an Olympic record for the qualifying format. Qiongyue also scored 593 in the qualifying round.
Three years earlier at the Tokyo Games, the 30-year-old placed fifth in the same event.
Sagen’s mom said the family is “over the top” with excitement.
“She’s wanted this for a long time and that’s what she’s worked for,” said Susan Maddalena, an East Anchorage High School graduate who now lives in Groveland, California. “So we’re feeling just elated for her because it’s a lifetime goal.”
The silver medal is just the latest chapter in one of UAF’s brightest success stories.
“When she was up at University of Fairbanks, she walked on and redshirted her first year and Dan Jordan was the coach at the time and he saw her potential,” Susan said. “So at the end of her first year up there, he sent her to Fort Moore — then it was Fort Benning — to compete in a World Cup and that was her first competition and she won a silver medal.
“And after that, it was all over. That’s what she wanted to do.”
Maddalena earned multiple All-American honors in air rifle and smallbore and made four straight appearances in the NCAA Rifle National Championships.
One year after graduating from UAF, Maddalena enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve as a marksmanship instructor.
Susan Maddalena said her daughter is ultra-dedicated in whatever she does.
“Anybody that knows her in Groveland, they all were calling me going, ‘I knew her when she was a little girl and she was so determined,’” Susan said. “Anything she took on, she was determined. She raised sheep, goats, horses, worked in the woods, and she always did it with her whole being, she never did it part way. So shooting’s the same thing. It was with all of her.”
Fellow Nanooks Emmons won gold (2004) and silver (2008) in prone and bronze (2012) in 3 positions. Gray won gold in women’s 3 positions in 2012.
As a program, UAF Rifle has amassed 11 national championships, the most recent coming last year.
This is the second medal earned by someone with Alaska ties at the 2024 Paris Olympics, following Eagle River’s Alev Kelter and Team USA’s bronze medal performance in women’s rugby.
Homer’s Kristen Faulkner competes in road cycling and team pursuit next week.
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