Trap, Open

The United States dominated this event, taking the first five places. It was noted that the second day’s shooting (24 July) was done in very poor weather, with wind and rain.

The champion was Mark Arie, who won by shooting cleanly on his last 10 clays. He was one of the most colorful and popular shooters in American history. His career began in 1905, and he competed at the Grand American Handicap for over 30 years. He first won the Grand American in 1912, and added his second title in the event 22 years later, in 1934. In addition to his gold medal, Arie was awarded possession of the Challenge Prize that had been donated by Lord Westbury. The runner-up, Frank Troeh, was hampered by a severely cut finger he had sustained during the team event.

The exact format of how shooters advanced after each round is not precisely known. The format listed here is from an article by Forest McNeir in The Sportsmen’s Review, a 1920 USA shooting journal (from 28 August 1920), but since we don’t have all the starters it is impossible to be precise about who advanced after each round.

In addition, McNeir’s description of the event and its format is not totally consistent. He describes the format as follows: “On this day [24 July] they shot two strings of 15 targets, making 50, including the 20 on Friday [23 July], and then eliminated those of the contestants that were below 53 (sic - also may be 58). Then these contestants shot at 20 more and those below 70 were eliminated. There were only 12 men who got into the finals.” However, we know of at least 14 competitors who scored more than 70.

The 1920 shooting events are one of the few for which we do not have full results. We know of 18 competitors in the event, from seven nations, but it is likely that as many as 53 shooters competed. Various sources list from 48 to 53 starters from eight or nine countries. French shooters certainly competed in the individual trap event as they competed in the team event (they were held separately), and are mentioned in the event summary by McNeir, but no specific entrants are known. Denmark may have been the ninth nation entered although it does not appear that their lone entrant (Christian Justesen) competed. Further, Finland is described as having three entrants but only one (Veli Nieminen) is known.