Ángel Ricardo Velarte Rosando (born June 8, 1971, in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

) is an Argentine sport shooter. He won a gold medal in air rifle shooting at the

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the games was made in the mid-1990s, when Dominican Republic had one of the highest growth rates in Latin America. Al ...

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

, and was selected to compete for Argentina in two editions of the Olympic Games (1996 and 2004). Having started shooting at the age of fifteen, Velarte served most of his sporting career as a full-time member of the La Rioja Shooting Federation ( es, Tiro Federal La Rioja) in his native

under head coaches Julio Escalante and Ariel Martínez. Velarte's Olympic debut came at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, where he wound up a thirty-eighth spot in the

10 m air rifle 10 metre air rifle (N.B. For "Meter" in this article – read "Metre") is an ISSF shooting events, International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) shooting event, bullseye shooting, shot at a bullseye target over a distance of using a .177 calibe ...

, and then edged out his compatriot

Ricardo Rusticucci Ricardo Rusticucci (16 May 1946 – 8 November 2014)

by a three-point advantage to take the forty-fourth position in the 50 m rifle 3 positions, accumulating a tally of 577 and 1,142 points, respectively. Despite missing out his 2000 Olympic bid, Velarte reached the peak of his shooting career by claiming the first gold medal for Argentina in the men's air rifle at the

with a total score of 692.5 points. Because of his remarkable victory, Velarte had guaranteed a place on the Argentine team and attained a mandatory minimum score to compete for the Olympics, signifying his return from an eight-year absence. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Velarte qualified for his second Argentine squad in rifle shooting. In the

, Velarte shot 586 out of 600 to finish in a two-way tie with Serbia and Montenegro's

Stevan Pletikosić Stevan Pletikosić ( sr-cyrl, Стеван Плетикосић) (born 14 March 1972 in Kragujevac, Serbia, then SFR Yugoslavia) is a sport shooter from Serbia. While still a junior, he won a bronze medal in Men's 50 m Rifle Prone in the 1992 Su ...

for thirty-ninth place. Four days later, in the 50 m rifle prone, Velarte scored 584 points to grab the penultimate position in a field of forty-six shooters, betraying a three-point gap from Cuba's

Reinier Estpinan Reinier Estpinan Gómez (born December 5, 1982 in Havana) is a Cuban sport shooter. He earned a silver medal in the men's rifle prone at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and also represented his nation Cuba at the ...

in the prelims. In his third and last event, 50 m rifle 3 positions, Velarte fired 394 in the prone position, 368 in the standing, and 380 in the kneeling to accumulate an overall record of 1,137 points, leaving him in thirty-sixth place along with Mexico's Roberto José Elias.

References

External links

ISSF Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Velarte, Angel 1971 births Living people Argentine male sport shooters Olympic shooters for Argentina Shooters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2003 Pan American Games Shooters at the 2007 Pan American Games Shooters at the 2011 Pan American Games Shooters at the 2015 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for Argentina Sportspeople from Buenos Aires Pan American Games medalists in shooting Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games