Murray State alum and U.S. Army Sargeant Ivan Roe has traded in his Racer blue and gold for red, white, and blue ahead of Roe's appearance at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Roe spoke with WKMS Morning Edition host Daniel Hurt about his upcoming shooting sports events, how he fell in love with the sport, and his journey to the international stage, where he will compete with Team USA in the 20m Air Rifle and 50m Smallbore.
Born in Bozeman but raised in Manhattan, Montana, Roe graduated from Murray State University in 2019. After a successful shooting career at MSU, Roe joined the Army to continue shooting with the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU). The program allowed him to compete worldwide, helping him achieve one of his proudest moments: winning his first individual gold international medal in 2022 at the World Championships. In January, Roe qualified in the 10-meter and 50-meter smallbore air rifle competitions.
Growing Up in Montana
Roe said that while he had been shooting since he was a teenager, it wasn't obvious that his future would lead him to the Olympics. At first, he admitted, he wasn't a big fan of the sport. "Growing up, I didn't really have the intention to compete in the Olympics," Roe explained. "It was something we always watched on TV, which was always cool. It wasn't until around sophomore or junior year of high school when I started switching over to the international disciplines that I realized maybe going to the Olympics would be a cool dream to have."
The MSU alum said his father was instrumental in his involvement with the sport. "He enrolled us in what was at the time called the Bozeman Jaycees program, and they did hunter education and marksmanship training. He wanted us to be safe hunters, not really great shooters. It kind of snowballed into where I am now. My first year, I really didn't want to do it. He made me do it. I did not want to be here. He said after my first year, I could quit if I wanted, and I shot through the state match. We took third place as a team, and I decided that I really, really liked winning and wanted to keep shooting."
From Montana to Murray State
Roe said he considered numerous options for where to go to college, eventually narrowing his search down to Murray State University. "There aren't a lot of universities in the country that have an NCAA rifle team," Roe said. "When I was looking around for a college, I didn't even know if I was going to be shooting a rifle. At the time, it was between rifle and soccer. I was getting coaches talking to me about sports. I decided that I had a better opportunity to go further with rifle, so that was narrowing my options. Then, I was looking for colleges that had degrees that were either marine biology or aquatic biology. Something water-based because I knew I wanted to do something with the water."
The former Racer said he found around six colleges that met his list of requirements. Then, Roe explored Murray State University on an unofficial visit and fell in love with the campus and community, which reminded him of his home in Montana. "It felt like home because where I came from was a college town. Bozeman is very much a college town. It was very rural. The team felt very family-oriented, just like the one I had at home. It just made sense to go to Murray for me. It had everything I wanted for a degree, and it didn't feel like I was moving across the country all that much."
While attending Murray State, Roe joined the rifle team, where his career began to take off. He broke many records and left quite a legacy in his wake. "At multiple points in my career, I set every school record," Roe said. "It was stuff I don't think I would have been able to accomplish if I hadn't gotten to Murray."
Roe's Journey to the Olympic Games
Roe is taking his record-setting skills from Murray State's rifle team — as well as those he gained in the USAMU — to Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. "At the Olympics, [viewers] will see three events for rifles. They'll see three events for pistol and events for shotguns. The rifle will be individual air rifle, mix team air rifle, which is a man and woman team, and then your individual smallbore 50-meter events. With air rifle, it's going to be 60 shots in the standing position."
He explained that the man and woman team shoot their 30 shots, which are added together and scored based on the Olympics criteria. Shooting partners are assigned to the shooter and are dependent on how many people qualify. He said that currently, there are two women and one man qualified for air rifle.
"So, currently, we only have one mix team," Roe said. "If we don't qualify one more man, we can't have mix teams. It's a little bit funky how the International Olympic Committee has done quotas, and our international governing body has allocated those [for] how people get selected to go to the Olympics."
Roe said the third rifle event, the 50-meter smallbore, is his favorite. "It's going to be shot outdoors, so you have to deal with the wind, the weather, whatever you have going on that day. We are going to be reading the wind each shot, and depending on what the wind is doing, we're either going to be adjusting our sights or shading on our target with our sights to try to account for wind drift. Smallbore is going to be three positions: you will shoot kneeling, prone, and standing all in one hour and 30 minutes. That will be integer scoring, so a maximum score would be 600."
"If the weather has been extremely windy, it can be really tricky," he continued. "You can't really wait for an optimal condition. You have to kind of just do the best you can and force what you've got to work."
How Roe feels about representing the U.S. in the Olympics
"It's really hard to put into words how much of an honor it is," Roe said. "I have obviously dreamed of this for a long time. I've tried out for the last two Olympics and came really close. This one, I finally get to go. I still don't know if it's even hit me yet. I get to go and not only represent my hometown, my state, which I'm super proud of, but I get to go represent my country and the army because they've been able to support me for the last five years to achieve this dream."
U.S. Army Sargeant Roe will compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics' air rifle and smallbore events. For a full schedule of events, visit the official Paris Olympics website.
