Gerald Ouellette

This article deals with the Canadian marksman, for the Canadian ice hockey player of the same name see Gerry Ouellette .

Joseph Raymond Gerald "Gerry" Ouellette (born August 14, 1934 in Windsor , Ontario ; † September 2, 1975 ibid) was a Canadian sports marksman . In 1956 he was Olympic champion in prone shooting with the small-bore rifle.

Career

Ouellette took part in competitions in three disciplines at the 1956 Olympic Games . In the three-position fight with the free rifle, he finished 11th among 20 participants. Three days later, 44 participants took part in the three-position battle with the small-bore rifle, Ouellette came in 21st. The next day, on December 5, 1956, 44 participants also took part in the prone competition with the small-bore rifle. Ouellette scored 600 out of a possible 600 points and won the gold medal ahead of Vasily Borisov from the USSR and his compatriot Gilmour Boa . Ouellette's performance was not recognized as a world record, however, because the system did not have the required 50 meters distance to the target, but was one and a half meters too short.

Three years after his Olympic victory, Ouellette won four medals at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago. He won the three-position fight with the free rifle, received silver in the three-position fight with the small-bore rifle and took third place with the small-bore rifle, kneeling and standing. At the Pan American Games in 1967 he won a silver medal in the small-bore three-position battle.

Twelve years after his first Olympic participation, Ouellette was also at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. In prone shooting with the small bore rifle, he took 20th place out of 86 participants. In the small caliber three-position fight, 62 shooters were at the start, Ouellette reached sixth place with three points behind the bronze rank.

Ouellette was a trained technical draftsman. He died in a crash on his private plane. Almost forty years after his Olympic victory, Gerald Ouellette was featured on a Canadian Post stamp in the Sporting Heroes series.

Web links

• Gerald Ouellette in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 . P. 381f
2. ↑ Volker Kluge: Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 . P. 81f
3. ↑ Volker Kluge: Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 . P. 454, note 279
4. ↑ Image of the stamp on postagestampguide.com (accessed on July 6, 2019)