Ned Gerard, a 53-year-old St. John home builder, is set to compete in the Beijing Olympics this week. Ned Gerard is w world class rifleman, and he’ll be competing Thursday in the 50-meter prone event to be held in the Beijing Shooting Range Hall.
A U.S. rifle coach calls this event “the ultimate accuracy game.” (More about the competition in this article from Petersen’s Rifle Shooter: http://www.rifleshootermag.com/RS_prone_082008/)
Gerard’s been on island nearly twenty years; his wife, Karen, is also an internationally ranked pistol shooter and she’s accompanied him to China as coach of the V.I. Sport Shooting Federation, of which Gerard is a member.
He is one of seven athletes from the islands competing in the Beijing games. The others include two boxers, a swimmer. a sailor, and two track athletes.
The St. John Source profiled Gerard in this article: http://www.onepaper.com/stjohnvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1212900491