YanXiao Gong, who collects guns as a hobby, won the medal in the P3 mixed 25m SH1 event.
YanXiao Gong has been collecting and shooting guns for years.
He has a collection of dozens of historical firearms in his parents’ home. The 26-year-old’s compilation is mostly composed of the World War I-era pieces and includes weapons such as a Smith & Wesson Model 36, Mauser C96, and a Chinese copy of the Soviet 7.62 mm Tokarev TT-33 pistol.
Over the years, Gong has spent a countless amount of time cleaning and oiling the guns from their stocks to the muzzles and checking the humidity in the air of the area they are kept in.
“Probably too over the top,” noted the former Malibu High student. However, the gun collection is a “quite refuge” for him.
“I really enjoy collecting historical firearm pieces,” Gong said. “I love history. I grew up watching documentaries and old war films, the black-and-white documentaries. I have always had a soft spot for World War I firearms.”
His love of classical firearms helped lead him to become a competitive pistol shooter on the world stage. In fact, Gong shot his way to a silver medal in the Paris 2024 Paralympics last September.
He won the medal in the P3 mixed 25m SH1 event. Gong, also the 2023 world champion in P3, is the first U.S. Paralympian man to earn a medal in the shooting competition since 1984.
Gong entered the games confident he would claim a medal; since the silver medal was placed around his neck, though, he has had conflicted feelings because he felt he could have won the gold medal and realized that other talented shooters from around the globe didn’t win any medals at all.
“Coming out with silver is an accomplishment,” he said. “I felt I was going to win, but I didn’t know if it was going tobe gold, silver, or bronze. I also had a feeling of being inadequate.”
The weight of the silver medal helps though.
“The medal is heavy,” Gong explained. “Which is something I appreciate. It makes you feel more accomplished.”
The P3 final consisted of a rapid-fire competition, where athletes shot a series of five shots. The scores are hit-or-miss. A hit is scored 10.2 or higher.
Gong, who walks with a cane, had 28 total hits, a Paralympic final record. He beat Jungman Kim from South Korea for second place, but Gong’s 28 final score was two hits behind China’s Chao Yang, who snagged gold.
Gong also claimed an eighth-place finish in the Paralympics’ P4 mixed 50m pistol competition.
Gong suffers from Surfer’s myelopathy, a nontraumatic spinal cord injury associated with hyperextension of the back, caused by a surf outing two months into his freshman year at Malibu High School in 2013. He was homeschooled after the accident.
Gong began shooting with the Bridget Shooting Team La Puente, east of Downtown Los Angeles, in 2017. The team’sshooting coach, In Kim, who passed away last month, convinced Gong, who he had known for several years, to begin shooting competitively.
After Gong’s silver medal victory, Kim told Shooting Sports USA he was proud of Gong’s success.
“His dedication and hard work have truly paid off, and his winning a medal is a testament to his strength and resilience,” Kim said.
Gong, a two-time Paralympian, moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in order to train at Team USA’s facility before the 2020 Paralympics. His family. Gong’s family has moved from Malibu to the San Gabriel Valley, but he still visits Malibu. His mother still practices Chinese medicine in the city.
Gong has won medals in a variety of international competitions since making his competitive shooting debut at the 2019 World Shooting Para Sport Championships.
He considers himself more of a gun collector than shooter but is shooting for the bullseye in the sport.
“I love shooting,” Gong said. “When I started in the sport, I had a goal to become a world champion and paralympic champion. I’m not quite there but it is getting close.”
