Lauryn, Indy and Holly, front row, with Sierra and Russell. 82337 Picture: JOE MASTROIANNI
Russell and Lauryn Mark are straight shooters, whether they have their newly acquired Berettas in their hands or not.
The pair is preparing to head to London to represent Australia at the Olympic Games.
For Lauryn, it is her second games, while Russell is a veteran campaigner – London will be his seventh games, six as a competitor and one as a coach/team manager.
Of recent times they have been making news for non-shooting related matters. Russell for losing a footy bet which means he will wear a mankini into the opening ceremony, and Lauryn for posing for Zoo Weekly magazine.
All this, while two Olympic swimmers posing with guns has made headlines. Guns polarise opinion and the sport is seen by many as one that should not be celebrated or even exist.
The pair came to their sport from different angles and different countries. Russell is a Ballarat boy.
“I learnt from my dad because we always had guns around our house but I was mad keen on football so I didn’t start competing ‘til I was 14 or 15. I had no intention of being a shooter, I loved footy and cricket but I stopped growing and I wasn’t going to be full forward for Carlton, so shooting was a better option,” he said.
American born Lauryn was always around guns because her parents were shooters and she was brought up around the gun club, much like her own children now.
“At some stage you either take part in shooting or you stop going to the club, so I started shooting a bit. I was 11 at the time and I rocked up to my local club and they were having the national titles which were the trials for the ‘92 Olympic team,” she said.
“At the time I was doing tae kwon do, which I had been doing for six years but I decided to dedicate myself to shooting to try and win a gold medal.”
The couple runs a very successful business ‘Shooting Stars’, which hosts corporate shooting days. Their sport has become their life’s work. When did it go from fun to full time? Russell remembers the turning point very well.
“I went to the 1984 Olympic trials, not really as a serious contender to make the Olympic team, but I didn’t finish that far off making the team. I tried out for the ‘86 Commonwealth Games team and finished as the first emergency, which gutted me. I made the ‘86 World Championships team and shot really well and by the time the ‘88 Olympics came around I was the number one shooter in the country. So between ‘84 and ‘86 I decided that shooting was something I really wanted to do.”
No such moment for Lauryn.
“In all honesty I think I was just born and bred to shoot. I started at local competitions and I was fortunate to have a very supportive father who was high up in the coaching of the US team. He knew the right process to help me and I was guided largely by him through the juniors to the open competitions.”
Come late July, all of Wyndham will be behind our shooting stars.
