At 12 years old, aerospace engineering major Austen Smith traded a typical teenage experience to focus on skeet shooting.
When Smith was younger, she would always play rhythmic video games. Her father noticed her hand-eye coordination and suggested she try shotgun shooting.
Her family didn’t hunt, and shotguns never crossed her mind, but the moment she hit a target for the first time, something clicked.
“I shot a couple targets for the first time, and the moment that I hit one, yeah, that’s kind of whenever the addiction started,” Smith said.
Now, at 23 years old, Smith has attended two Olympic Games, winning silver and bronze medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She said it’s been affirming to see her hard work pay off and to share those memories with her parents.
“Realizing you could say that you’re not just an Olympian, but a two-time Olympian — it really does mean something special to me,” Smith said. “I don’t think I could ever get over that feeling.”
When she’s not training, Smith is working toward her degree at UTA. Growing up in the Metroplex, she always had a fascination with planes and NOVA, a science series on PBS demystifying the scientific and technological concepts that shape and define human lives.
Smith frequently traveled on American Airlines’ MD-80s and as a kid. She would sit in the back to hear the engines go, which sparked her interest in aviation. She loved doodling, science, math, engineering and planes, so aerospace became the “perfect fit.”
Her passion began young, as Smith started practicing skeet regularly in middle school, attending a match where she first met Olympic gold medalist Vincent Hancock.
At the time, Hancock had two Olympic gold medals in men’s skeet, and by the end of Smith’s competition, he asked her father if he could train her.
The answer was no.
“Thankfully, one of the other parents went up to [my dad] and said, ‘Don’t you know who that is? That’s Vincent Hancock, the two-time gold medalist,’” Smith said. “Of course, right then, my dad’s like, ‘Oh, okay, nevermind. Yeah, you can go train with him.’”
Smith thought it would be a one-off, but she began training regularly with Hancock.
Smith credits her father and Hancock for developing her shooting style. Her father helps with the mental game while Hancock teaches her the fundamentals.
Silver medalist Conner Prince, whom Smith describes as her “best friend in shooting sports,” has played a crucial role in her journey. While the two push each other on the range, she said they’re also “complete goofballs.”.
That’s what was so special about Paris, Smith said: On and off the field, the Shotgun Olympic Team members were all close friends.
“We can go on the field, shoot, and then we can goof off after,” she said. “That’s the kind of chemistry that not a lot of teams have, and I think that positive atmosphere is what really helped drive us to do well this Olympics.”
To qualify for the Olympics, participants compete in two selection matches, shooting 250 targets in the first match. In comparison, national and international matches involve 125 targets, but the increased targets ensure that Team USA selects the most consistent shooters.
The top six participants advance to the final, which Smith described as a “very intense elimination-style final.” Athletes shoot 20 targets and then rounds of 10, eliminating the last place in each round to determine first and second place. Several months later, the process is repeated, and a final qualifying score determines who makes the Olympic team.
“The U.S. team is definitely more intense in terms of that selection,” Smith said. “We’re put through the wringer, but that’s why we have such good shooters. We have people who can weather a lot.”
Anybody can sign up for selection matches, Smith said, so nobody is ever safe. It pushes every shooter to be their best and strengthens the organization.
It wasn’t until after placing 10th in women’s skeet at the 2020 Games that Smith realized she needed to improve her mental game.
“I made the team just based off of pure determination,” she said. “And at the end of the day, I didn’t really have a mental process yet.”
After taking a year off, she connected with Lanny Bassham, a UTA alumnus and Olympic gold medalist. The two met virtually a couple of times a week from late February to May to sharpen Smith’s mental process.
Bassham specialized in rifle shooting, winning the three-position smallbore silver in 1972 and gold in 1976. Bassham said that at that time, there were no classes on mental training.
Athletes believed mental toughness was inherent rather than a developed skill. During the 1972 Olympics, Bassham’s nerves got the better of him, and he lost the gold after dropping points early.
He realized he needed to strengthen his mental game and spent the next few years calling successful Olympians to learn about their mental preparation.
“Nobody had the whole story on the mental game,” Bassham said. “But everybody had a piece of it.”
After learning all he could, Bassham returned to the 1976 Olympics and won gold, also becoming the first Maverick to compete in two Olympic Games.
In 1977, Bassham started Mental Management Systems, a family-run company working to help teach people how to think under pressure.
The goal going into Paris was to medal, Smith said. If she “did everything properly and if all the stars aligned,” she’d walk away with a medal.
Now a two-time Olympic medalist, Smith said it’s her job to help make the next generation better than her, reminding them to stay cognizant of their mental game.
“We always say shooting is 10% physical, 90% mental to a certain point,” Smith said. “Why not focus on that 90% mental?”
Smith recalled the memorable experience of walking at Champions Park in Paris. Shooting athletes don’t get a lot of recognition, Smith said, and they never expect to.
But as thousands of people gathered to congratulate athletes, shouting “USA,” and asking for selfies and autographs, Smith said it was a special moment to see her hard work pay off.
Talking to her loved ones after winning was special for Smith.
“My dad’s not a very emotional person, and he was tearing up over there,” she said. “That was a very special moment for me.”
Smith never thought she would have her own Olympic medal, and to many athletes, the Olympics can feel like just another competition. But when she showed her medal to her family and friends, the fact that she earned an Olympic medal really sunk in.
“The moment that you show it to somebody and you see their face light up — or I’ve even had friends who are shaking whenever they’ve held it — I’m like, okay, yeah, no, it is a big deal,” Smith said. “That is really cool, and I’m just happy to be able to share it with others.”
Upon Smith’s return home from Paris, computer science senior Rudy Orozco and others in their friend group met her at the airport with her family, waving American flags and signs saying, “Welcome back, Austen” and “Olympic medalist.”
Orozco met Smith near the start of 2020 through a Discord group. The group used the platform to chat, study and organize a safe meet-up at the University Center, post-COVID-19.
When Orozco first heard Smith mention her competitions, he had no idea that she was a skeet shooter set to become an Olympian. After learning Smith was going to Tokyo, the whole friend group began rooting for her.
“It’s astonishing how she’s able to go to school and then keep shooting and do all that,” Orozco said. “The balance is really insane.”
Smith said it’s good to be back to learning after taking the year to practice her shooting. Being in the classroom is her “second happy place.”
Paris re-sparked her passion for shooting, but for now, Smith is focused on getting her aerospace engineering degree. She plans to take a break from competitions before preparing for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“You can have a balance between your student life and whatever your extracurricular may be,” Smith said. “There’s always a path, and you just got to take enough time and effort to find it. You don’t have to completely give one up for the other.”
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