Who is Nino Salukvadze? All you need to know about the legendary 10-time Olympian shooter in Paris 2024
Nino Salukvadze is a renowned Georgian shooter, who represented the country in the Paris Olympics 2024. This was her 10th appearance in the Games since 1988, and she created history by being the first woman to do so. She was also Georgia's one of the flag bearers for the 2024 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations.
Salukvadze has participated in three different Olympic teams throughout her career. She has not only qualified for the Olympics on a constant basis for the past three decades, but she has also won many medals, including a gold and silver in Seoul in 1988 and a bronze in Beijing in 2008.
She made her Olympic debut in the 1988 Summer Olympics for the Soviet Union and won a gold medal in the women's 25m pistol event and a silver medal in the 10m pistol event.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, she participated in the Unified team at Barcelona in the 1992 Summer Olympics and then continued her participation in the Georgian Olympic team. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, she added a bronze medal to her tally in the women's 10m air pistol event.
Although participating in every Olympic game since 1988, Nino Salukvadze couldn't win any medals after the 2008 Summer Olympics. In the 2016 Summer Olympics, Nino participated with her son Tsotne Machavariani and was the first mother-son duo competing in the same Olympics.
How did Nino Salukvadze qualify for the Paris Olympics?
The Tokyo Olympics 2020 was meant to be the farewell of Nino Salukvadze but she came out of retirement and equaled the record of Canadian equestrian jumper Ian Millar of participating in 10 Olympic games.
The Georgian legendary shooter qualified for Paris 2024 based on the European Games, the World Championships, and the ISSF world rankings. Despite being 55 years old, she was Georgia's top-ranked female shooter in the 25m event and was ranked third in the 10m event.
Unfortunately, she finished 40th in the 25m pistol event, while ending on 38th position in the 10m air pistol event in Paris.