CMP Club &

Competition Tracker

The following biography was written by CMP Staff

Gary grew up on a farm in Nebraska where hunting and shooting skills are a way of life. Dreams of becoming an Olympic gold medalist in shooting led Gary into the US Army. In 1959 he was assigned to the elite U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Georgia. He won his first national championship in 1961. In 1962, an era when Russian shooters dominated international championships, he stunned the shooting world by winning four individual world championships and setting three world records at the Cairo World Shooting Championships. He took three more world titles at the 1966 World Shooting Championship, and won the 300 meter free-rifle gold medal at both the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, setting new world records at both events.

When Gary retired from active international competition in 1969, his two Olympic and seven World Championship gold medals were and continue to be the most major international shooting titles ever won by an American. Following retirement, Gary taught clinics, authored hundreds of magazine articles and three books on shooting, while continuing his shooting as a recreational pursuit.

A former Nebraska state senator, Gary worked with the NRA where he was responsible for the development of safety, training and competition programs; he became the founding and Administrative Director of the U. S. Shooting Team Foundation and, in 1993, he moved to Atlanta to become the Shooting Competitions Manager for the 1996 Olympic Games. He has attended eight Olympic Games, and is the first American ever elected as a Vice President of the International Shooting Union. In 1996, Anderson accepted a position with Fulton County Georgia, to manage the Wolf Creek Shooting Venue, a facility destined to become a premier national and international center for the shooting sports.

Among hundreds of honors, Gary was presented the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice (NBPRP) Distinguished International Shooting Badge (Serial number one) in April 1963 by President John F. Kennedy. Gary served on the NBPRP board from 1976 to 1984; was one of the first persons to advocate a shift in priorities to youth and junior shooting, and he competed many times at Camp Perry in all 3 phases of the National Matches, winning national championships in two of them.