YanXiao Gong, 26, is loading pistols to represent the United States in two shooting competitions in Paris
YanXiao Gong had a talent and affinity for shooting guns as a youth.
Gong doesn’t recall the first time he pulled a trigger but does remember so consistently hitting the bullseye or balloons at carnival and fair shooting galleries under the watchful eye of his grandparents that vendors began to recognize him and award him the biggest prize they had before caps were loaded into the carnival gun.
He would travel from his Malibu home to renowned shooting coach In Kim’s Bridge Junior Shooting Club facility in La Puente, east of downtown Los Angeles, to hone his sharpshooter skills.
“When I was a kid I loved all sorts of guns — from BB guns, to airsoft, to cap guns,” Gong explained. “You would rarely find me without some sort of toy gun in my hand. I liked shooting pistols, but never took it seriously because it was more of a hobby. It’s an independent sport with luxury of peace, serenity, and solitude for which I really like.”
Now, the 26-year-old is loading pistols to represent the United States in two shooting competitions at the Paralympic Games in Paris.
Gong is prepared to compete in the games, the largest international multisport spectacle for athletes with a range ofdisabilities.
“I am in good shape right now,” he said. “Not my best shape in my entire performing history, but it is good enough for me to feel as confident as I am to go to Paris.”
Gong has wielded his pistols and excelled on the international stage before. He has handful of medals in his holster. He aims to garner more during the Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 games.
“I’m trying to get to the pinnacle of it, which is gold,” he stated. “People from the whole world are coming, so I won’tbe the only one. I’ll do my best.”
Gong, who walks with a cane, is regularly a 10-meter air pistol, 25m sport pistol, and 50m free pistol shooter for the USA Shooting team.
He will compete in the P3 — Mixed 25m Pistol SH1 against 25 competitors from countries such as China, France, Hungary, India, South Korea, and Poland on a shooting range at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Paris. Gong will also take aim for the red, white, and blue in the P4 — Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 in a field that includes 28 other shooters.
Both events feature most participants seated and armed with a pistol in one hand and their eyes trained on a target. Thirteen shooting Para sport events will take place in the Paralympics. Fifteen shooting events occurred in the same facility during this summer’s Olympics.
Gong said talented marksmen hail from China and Ukraine. He is an expert pistol wielder also.
Gong won the gold medal in the Mixed P3 — 25m Pistol SH1 and a bronze medal in the P1 Men’s Air Pistol SH1 at the 2023 Parapan American Games. He was the 2023 World Shooting Para Sport Champion in the Mixed P3 — Pistol SH1.
Gong won gold in the 25m Sport Pistol P3 at the 2022 Peru Grand Prix. He garnered the silver in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol P1 at the same competition.
Gong also won bronze medals in the P3 Mixed 23m Sport Pistol SH1 and P1 — Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 at the WSPS Lima World Cup in 2021. He won silver in the P4 — Mixed 50m Free Pistol SH1.
At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, Gong finished ninth in the 10 Air Pistol SH1 and tenth in the Mixed 25m Pistol SH1. In his first international competition, the 2019 World Shooting Para Sport Championships, Gong finished eighth in the P3 — Mixed 25m Sport Pistol SH1.
When Gong was named the world champion last year, he was his most fluid version because he didn’t put any pressure on himself.
“If you were to look at the recordings of the final, you can see I was the only one with very little or no pressure,” he recalled. “I enjoyed the limelight while shooting. I will try to recreate having as low expectations as possible in Paris.”
Gong collected historical pieces from World War I to the Cold War era when he was younger. The first real gun he handled was a Chinese copy of the Soviet 7.62 mm Tokarev TT-33 pistol. It belonged to a friend of Gong’sgrandfather. He only shot pistols for fun.
Gong suffered Surfer’s myelopathy, a nontraumatic spinal cord injury associated with hyperextension of the back, from a surf outing two months into his freshman year at Malibu High School in 2013.
Gong and his family focused on rehabilitating his spine so he could regain as much movement as possible over the next few years. He was homeschooled but recalls having good friends at Malibu High.
“My classmates made me a huge ‘get well’ card,” he said. “It was really neat.”
The shooting coach Kim convinced Gong to return to shooting in 2017 as a fun way to focus his mind and pass the time between rehab and therapy treatments.
“I would go to his club and shoot standing,” Gong remembered of Kim. “He would spend hours with me. He would have me standing there with support in my front and my back. I didn’t have much concept of what I was getting into because I never kept track of my score.”
Kim was though. He notified Gong that he made the Para national team. Gong then went to his first international competition in Australia. Gong moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in order to train at Team USA’s facility when he was selected for the 2020 Olympic team.
The one-time Malibuite is one of two pistol Paralympians USA Shooting selected to join Team USA at the Paris Paralympic Games. The other is Marco De La Rosa, a Marine Corp veteran from Chicago. There are also four U.S rifle Paralympians competing: Jazmin Almlie-Ryan, John Wayne Joss III, Kevin Nguyen, and McKenna Geer.
Gong said being a good shooter requires talent. He views himself from the third-person perspective when eying the target and engulfs himself into the surrounding environment.
“I accept the noises from the audience,” he said. “They are there to see a good show. They are not enemies.”
“My attitude is more to perform and have a good time,” he noted. “The majority of time, I look at shooting as a joy.”