Keith Sanderson (born February 2, 1975) is an American

sport shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such a ...

who holds the

Olympic record Olympic records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games, including: * Archery (list) * Alpine skiing (records recognized only by FIS) * Athletics (list) ...

for the qualification round of

25 meter rapid fire pistol 25 meter rapid fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events and is shot with .22 LR pistols. The event has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after which ...

(583 points, set in 2008). After winning the qualification round, he fell back during the final and finished fifth, the same position he had reached in the 2006 World Championships. He has four medals from

ISSF World Cup The ISSF World Cup was introduced by the International Shooting Sport Federation in 1986 to provide a homogeneous system for qualification to the Olympic shooting competitions. It still is carried out in the Olympic shooting events, with four comp ...

s: a bronze from Munich 2007, a gold from Beijing 2009, where he defeated Vijay Kumar by 0.1 point in the final, another bronze from Munich 2009, and the gold from

Fort Benning, Georgia Fort Benning is a United States Army post near Columbus, Georgia, adjacent to the Alabama–Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border. Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees ...

where he won by 7 shots. On the continental level, Sanderson has been successful in other events as well. At the Championship of the Americas held in

Salinas, Puerto Rico Salinas (, ) is a town and municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico located in the southern coast of the island, south of Aibonito and Cayey; southeast of Coamo, east of Santa Isabel; and west of Guayama. Salinas is spread over 5 barr ...

in 2005, he won gold in 25 meter center-fire pistol and bronze in both 50 meter pistol and 25 meter standard pistol. He failed to place in rapid fire, but two years later, at the

2007 Pan American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games, were a major continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of 5,633 athletes from 42 National Olympic Com ...

in Rio de Janeiro, he won the silver medal, defeated only by Cuba's Leuris Pupo. Sanderson did not compete in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, having been suspended by the

United States Center for SafeSport The United States Center for SafeSport is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 2017 under the auspices of the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017. SafeSport is tasked with ad ...

SafeSport suspension

Sanderson was suspended indefinitely by

USA Shooting USA Shooting (USAS), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, was chartered by the United States Olympic Committee as the National Governing Body (NGB) for the sport of shooting in April 1995. The NRA had served as the NGB for one hundred years prio ...

for 17 violations of the Athlete Code of Conduct, and seven violations of the SafeSport policy. He did not compete in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, having been indefinitely suspended by the U.S. Center for SafeSport earlier.

References

External links

Sanderson's profile at ISSF TV
1975 births Living people American male sport shooters United States Army soldiers United States Distinguished Marksman ISSF pistol shooters Shooters at the 2007 Pan American Games Shooters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2012 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic shooters of the United States Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in shooting Medalists at the 2007 Pan American Games U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program {{US-sportshooting-bio-stub