Ragnar Skanåker

Ragnar Skanåker (born June 8, 1934) is a Swedish pistol shooter who was a world-class shooter for an extremely long period. His international breakthrough came in the 1972 Olympics, where he won the 50 m Pistol event. He is mostly associated with this event, the only one in which he has won Olympic medals (four medals distributed over his participation in seven Olympic games, plus the 1982 World Championship), but he also won the 1983 World Championship in 10 m Air Pistol and, surprisingly to most, the 1978 World Championship in 25 m Standard Pistol, with a new world record (that is still as of 2005 a European record). Skanåker's Swedish record in 50 m Pistol is 583, two points over the current world record.

He has participated in Olympic games in 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996. He would have participated in Athens 2004 thanks to a special invitation from the International Olympic Committee, but the Swedish Olympic Committee decided not to let Skanåker participate due to insufficient results during the year. An upset Skanåker reported that he will be aiming to participate in 2008 instead, the year he turns 74.

Over the years, Skanåker has worked as a shooting coach in several countries, and designed shooting-specific equipment, sometimes in cooperation with famous weapon manufacturers such as Cesare Morini. Today, he still competes although less often at the international level. He also engages in various debates in Sweden. He also promotes the precision glasses he has designed.

External links

* [http://www.skanaker.se Official website]
* [http://www.issfnews.com/default.asp?file=whoiswho&event=&wiwmode=namenat&shtrid=18051 Skanåker's profile at ISSF NEWS]
* [http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=1870&a=219489 "SOK stoppar Skanåker"] from SVT.se