Kelly Reisdorf
I think it's exciting. I think the weather today's going to be cooler. But the last couple of days have been pretty hot for the athletes.The range here, Chateauroux Shooting Centre, is incredible. At first, I thought I would like us to be at the main athlete’s village. But there are some benefits to being away from the city and the traffic and the craziness. But I think it would be nice if the athletes were in the main village too.

Kelly Reisdorf 
That’s a good question. We're actually doing a lot more proactive work - way up front - for LA to try and make sure we have a legacy shooting range facility that is co-located with the rest of the sports. Honestly, the experience of this was a huge lesson learned to make LA better.

Kelly Reisdorf
I've been in the gun industry, firearms, ammunition for most of my career. Prior to that aerospace and defense; and prior to that the military.

So on the one hand, the Second Amendment, and even the First and all those sort of core constitutional republic values are sort of a part of my life. And I knew several people on the foundation side of the USA Shooting organization, and they're going through some turnaround.

And I was asked, several times, if I would come in and help them do a turnaround with the organization. I didn't come from the Olympic movement, I don't have a competitive shooting background, although I am an avid firearms, user and enthusiast. But I'm not fancy, I'm just a normal person, I hunt and shoot with my kids. But hey, the brand is awesome. It could be - it should be - amazing. It should be the darling of the shooting sports industry. And I think it can be.

Kelly Reisdorf
I would like to see us have a stronger lineup for our pistol and rifle programs in terms of talent and athletes that can compete, and continue to make our shotgun program and trap and skeet even stronger.

I'd like to bring the USA shooting team and the brand back into the industry. I think they can work together better. And I'm really focused on trying to do that. Because there's been some history and I want to fix a lot of those things. But I can't fix everything.

Kelly Reisdorf
For rifle and pistol, there's a real range access issue in the country. And this is not new to industry, folks. I mean, we have a constant battle for ranges basically across the country.

But for ranges that we have where athletes that can train out for rifle and pistol there’s a real shortage. So we are geographically inherently limited by that.

We do have a resident program that I would like to make some improvements to where key athletes can live and train at the training center in Colorado Springs.

I think with a little bit of improvements in that program, I think that we can have some stronger talent lineup. For shotgun that's different… there's a lot more places. There's are World Cup facilities. You've got West Palm, Tucson, so our shotgun athletes inherently have better matches to train.

Part of it is fundraising…fundraising is so important to us… so that we can help these athletes get to as many World Cups as they possibly can. As much training on a world stage against some of our top competitors as much as possible. During the quad you've got kind of that, that first two years in the quad and then there's that, that back half where the funnel kind of narrows. You know, when we have our national team selected. Iit’s getting them out there and as much training and exposure as possible to these great, great competitors like China, India, so forth. That's going to be how we're gonna up the talent level.

Kelly Reisdorf 
I plan to continue that. Hillsdale is great. They’re on track, I believe for next July, to have put over $10 million into a rifle/pistol range so they could host a world class competition. I’m so excited that they’re adding trap and skeet fields to make it a national component. And we’re going to have an actual skeet competition and things like that. I think that’s going to bring them on the map a bit more.  We can have more competitions with them and bring in talent from all around the world.

Kelly Reisdorf
I would say that's what I spend about half my time on. I've only been in the role for about five, six months now. And, you know, the USOPC is going through all kinds of transformations -post the Nasser scandal and all those things. I'm sure Sarah had a lot to say about that.

And part of that is the increased oversight that Congress puts them USOC In terms of what they have to expect from an accountability standpoint, from each of their NGBs.

So I'm really focused on getting us out of the penalty box and getting us in good graces from a governance and a compliance standpoint, as well as in terms of the story of our athlete development in terms of what we can do for the US in terms of bringing in more medals.

We have a funding model this year that had mixed results. But one of the things that it has was a far greater line of sight into where the funds are applied at an athlete level. So that we have a much greater line of sight to where these dollars, not just from the NRA, from SDI from all of our amazing supporters, including Hillsdale, but the USOC, so we can see how productive those dollars were towards competition success. I think that that is pretty exciting. And I think that our medal count for the overall United States is a is a big deal. I know we don't get as much press. But but it's definitely worth arguing for.

Kelly Reisdorf
What I meant was, you know, we have in the last part of the turnaround status with the NGV is that and and quite frankly, all NGBs within the ecosystem of the USOPC. They have increased accountability and reporting requirements coming from Congress and other bodies. So I'm working to get us kind of caught up with those things, just like the other sports are.

Kelly Reisdorf
With USA shooting? That's a really interesting question. There's a long history as you know, with the NRA and the team. I am hoping to work more with the NRA.

I'm hoping to we have a lot of the similar goals in terms of, you know, our athletes embodying the epitome of discipline and excellence and safety in terms of marksmanship. And that's what the NRA wants as well, too.

Our athletes are these incredible role models for the whole industry in terms of what good looks like for being a marksman. I'd like to do more with them.

On the development side, I think there are opportunities to partner with the NRA and our Civilian Marksmanship types of programs. It's all about getting to more eyeballs and getting to more people when that, you know, 12 year old kid or 13 year old kid sees a Derek Mein or Vincent Hancock. They say to their mom or their dad, “hey, that's kind of cool. I think I might want to do that.”

What I want us to do is show up better in the outside world. So that when that 12 or 13 year old kid says, “I want to try that,” we have programs that can meet those kids where they're at, and bring them into the family - into the fold. If competitive shooting, isn't it, they might want to try.

Kelly Reisdorf
I think I think that, you know, from a rifle and pistol standpoint, we were up against some some really tough competition. I think that Derek shot absolutely - the three groups of 25- I mean, that was I was absolutely incredible.

But there was some amazing, amazing competitors yesterday as well. I mean, watching, the whole level of competition was just across the board so much higher than I thought.

But I'm looking forward to watching skeet as well. You know, we're we've got a really strong, competitive showing for men's and women's skeet as well as mixed teams.

Kelly Reisdorf
Well, I I can't comment on, you know, what, what former leaders, you know, were like. But I am very focused on a few key results around our financials, around increased spending for athletes, more attendance, more more people at world competitions.

I want us to have a larger presence, better competition over the next quad to have an even stronger medal count showing for LA. So this question is a tough question.

Kelly Reisdorf
It’s also to make sure than when we have increased funding that we are applying those skills and dollars in the best and highest use. Our mission is to represent the country on the world stage.

Kelly Reisdorf
Well, with the USOC, there’s more work to be done in terms of showing our value and where we sit in the whole ecosystem - what we contribute.

You know, if you think about, if you went back over the last three to four games, look at where the United States would rank in total, if shooting was not a certified sport.

That has a significant impact on all of Team USA.

So that in and of itself shows that we really, really matter.

But then secondly, I want us to be more productive with dollars. We have our overhead costs continuing to go down, and the direct athlete costs continuing to increase. I want to see that trend continue.