American sports shooter
Margaret Thompson Murdock (born August 25, 1942) is a nurse and former United States Army officer most widely known for her success in international shooting competitions, including a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Murdock is the first woman to win a medal in Shooting at the Summer Olympics and the first to win an individual open World Shooting Championship.[2] In international competition Murdock set four individual world records and nine team world records.[2] She is a member of five halls of fame, including the USA Shooting Hall of Fame and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.[2]
Early years
My first year at K-State, I couldn't shoot on the team because I was a female. I could practice with the K-State team but I couldn't be on the team. They got a new coach and he thought it would be a good idea for me to be on the team since I was shooting better than everyone else.
—
Murdock, reminiscing in 2011[2]
Margaret L. Thompson was born August 25, 1942, in Topeka, Kansas.[3] While growing up during the 1950s, she learned how to shoot by following her father to the rifle range.[2]
She graduated from Hayden High School,[2] then attended Kansas State University, where she competed on the men's rifle team[4] winning two Big Eight Conference championships and became the university's first female student to earn a varsity letter.[2] The team practiced with 5th Army Rifle Team at Fort Riley, which led to a four-year stint in the U.S. Army, where she was assigned as a shooting instructor at Fort Benning, eventually achieving the rank of major.[2]
Competitions
Murdock was the 1966 World Champion in Women's Standard Rifle.[5] In 1967 she won two gold medals in small-bore rifle at the Pan American Games and set a world record, for men or women, in the kneeling rifle shooting.[1]
Murdock narrowly missed qualifying for the 1968 games in Mexico City.[2] She became the first woman ever on the U.S. Olympic shooting team (in 1976) and the first woman to win a medal in shooting at the Olympic Games.[4] She won a silver medal that year, after tying with Lanny Bassham, the U.S. team captain.[4] Olympic rules forbade a shoot-off, which Bassham had requested.[4] During the national anthem, Bassham pulled Murdock up to stand with him on the gold medal spot at the podium.[4] In 1992 she was named to the U.S. International Shooting Hall of Fame.[4]
Post-competition career
Murdock retired from competitive shooting at age 35,[2] becoming a registered nurse, specializing in anesthesia.[3]
