Gastonia resident hopes air rifle gives him shot at Olympics

Ben Salas, 20, of Gastonia, is one of the top air rifle shooters in the country.
Ben Salas, 20, of Gastonia, is one of the top air rifle shooters in the country.

A Gastonia resident aimed high and earned the Junior gold medal in the Air Rifle National Championship last month, cementing his name among the best shooters in the country.

Twenty-year-old Ben Salas competed from June 17-23 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Salas won against some of the country’s top shooters and has qualified to train with Team USA.

“Winning means a lot to me because there are other shooters that I look up to that are the same age as I am,” Salas said. He was able to compete with those he admired, such as Scott Rockett and Rylan Kissell, who earned silver and bronze respectively.

When he was originally asked to attend the competition in May, Salas was not sure if he wanted to go because it was so last-minute, and he was not confident in his scores, but winning against his idols proved to him that his effort was worth it.

“It showed what potential I have,” he said.

Competitors earn points based on how accurately they hit a target about the size of a half-dollar coin 10 meters away out of 60 shots. Inside those targets were concentrically smaller rings that were worth 6 to 9 points. In the very center was a dot roughly the size of a period in a sentence worth 10 points. In higher levels, a shooter can earn up to 10.9 points if they hit directly in the middle of the dot. At that point, the difference between winning and losing can be one-tenth of a millimeter.

Salas scored 623.8 on the first day and 623.6 on the second day out of a possible 654 points.

The final round of the competition took the top eight shooters of the previous matches and had them shoot five-shot series in a 250-second time limit. After each series, the bottom two were removed and those who remained did the same exercise until only two were left. In this case, it was Salas and Rockett.

Ben Salas, 20, of Gastonia, looks over his air rifle. He is one of the top shooters in the country.
Ben Salas, 20, of Gastonia, looks over his air rifle. He is one of the top shooters in the country.

These top two contestants had 50 seconds to shoot one shot individually. The more accurate shooter of each round received two points; the first to get 16 points got to bring home the gold. This all happened in front of a crowd that, while forced to stay quiet during the match, was encouraged to make noise for the final round.

Salas won that round 16-10 and raised his rifle in triumph.

“I was speechless, I could not believe it,” said Salas’ father, Tony Salas, who watched a livestream of the competition. He was blown away that Ben was not only able to win but stay composed enough under all the pressure to accurately hit the target.

To stay calm during the matches, Salas would do math in his head. Going over his multiplication table, particularly his sevens, would keep him from overthinking the shot.

“I had no idea,” chuckled his father when he found out on Tuesday.

Salas then improvised a new relaxation practice when he got to the final round. He looked at other experienced shooters and started to mimic their pre-shot routine. Repeating what he saw those high-ranking shooters do to prepare would calm him down as he saw that they were taking their time despite the time limit.

“You kind of have to let your body do what it does,” said Salas. He said you can’t force yourself to shoot the target perfectly. “You’re paying attention to what you’re doing, but you’re not willing the shot.”

Ben Salas, 20, earned the Junior gold medal in the Air Rifle National Championship last month, cementing his name among the best shooters in the country.
Ben Salas, 20, earned the Junior gold medal in the Air Rifle National Championship last month, cementing his name among the best shooters in the country.

Getting from the top eight to the top two in the final round was the most stressful part of the competition for Salas because he had to outscore everyone ahead of him and his ranking could change drastically based on his results each round.

“The [top two] shoot-off is kind of stressful but not as much as the five-shot series because you know that, if you win, you get a gold medal. If you lose, you get a silver medal.

“It’s stressful, but it’s fun,” he said.

“Ben is the type of person that, when he sets his mind on something, he runs at it in full stride,” said Salas’ father. “He has put so much time into this sport practicing, frustrated, confused, and, oftentimes, not sure if he was good enough, but he never gave up. He always kept his foot on the gas.”

Salas moved to Gastonia in 2020 from Tampa, Florida, and is currently a junior at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he is majoring in criminal justice with a minor in psychology. He decided to attend N.C. State when he was recruited by assistant coach Amanda Banta during a 2019 national competition Salas participated in in Fort Benning, Georgia.

N.C. State was a familiar name to him as his grandfather, David McGuire, graduated from there in 1957. Salas has been practicing at this university under his head coach, Kelly Carter, during the school year and with 2020 Olympic silver medalist in the Mixed 10-Meter Air Rifle, Lucas Kozeniesky, during his off-season.

Originally born in Frederick, Maryland, Salas held a rifle for the first time during his sophomore year of high school in Tampa, Florida, in 2018. He was intrigued by the rifle team when he joined JROTC in Tampa and passed a class that allowed him to join the team. About a year later, he broke the school record by two points.

His ROTC coach ended up saying to Salas’ father: “hey, you really ought to consider taking him to the next level because I think you have something special, here.”

“Considering the fact that a lot of the athletes that I know have been at this since they were 9 or 10 years old, Ben just started,” said Salas’ father. “He’s new to this sport, in a sense.”

Medalist Ben Salas with his Walther LG 400 Monotec air rifle in studio Tuesday afternoon, July 26, 2022.
Medalist Ben Salas with his Walther LG 400 Monotec air rifle in studio Tuesday afternoon, July 26, 2022.

Now, Salas is considering two paths ahead of him. If he consistently shoots well enough to get on the podium, he will pursue having shooting as his career and try to go to Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028 for the Olympic Games.

If it doesn’t work out, he plans to use his criminology major to work as a police officer and eventually get a master’s degree to become a profiler.

With his recent accomplishment, Salas can compete against the best in the world from places such as India, China, and Czech Republic, who Salas said often win in international competitions. He is preparing to compete in the World Shooting Championships from Oct. 12-25, 2022, in Cairo, Egypt. Salas has created a GoFundMe fundraiser to help pay for his trip.

Out of the many sports Salas has played in his life, none have marked him the way shooting has. He said he never saw himself staying in other sports but can clearly see himself with a rifle a year down the road.

“It shows me that I can actually stick to it,” he said. “I think I’ve found something that I have a natural talent for.”

Luc Séguret, a rising senior at Western Carolina University, is working as a reporter for The Gaston Gazette until he returns to school in August. He can be reached at 828-206-2544 or email him at LSeguret@Gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gastonia resident dreams of Los Angeles Olympic games with air rifle