Shooting at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 10 metre air rifle

The women's 10 metre air rifle competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held on August 14 at the Markópoulo Olympic Shooting Centre near Athens, Greece. Following a relatively new Olympic tradition, it was the first event to be concluded at these Games.

Women's 10 metre air rifle at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Markópoulo Olympic Shooting Centre
Date	August 14, 2004
Competitors	44 from 31 nations
Winning score	502.0 OR
Medalists
Du Li  China Lioubov Galkina  Russia Kateřina Kůrková  Czech Republic
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The event consisted of two rounds: a qualifier and a final. In the qualifier, each shooter fired 40 shots with an air rifle at 10 metres distance from the standing position. Scores for each shot were in increments of 1, with a maximum score of 10.

The top 8 shooters in the qualifying round moved on to the final round. There, they fired an additional 10 shots. These shots scored in increments of .1, with a maximum score of 10.9. The total score from all 50 shots was used to determine final ranking.

China's world record holder Du Li outscored a host of elite markswomen in the air rifle shooting final to notch the first gold medal at these Games, smashing a new Olympic record score of 502.0 points.^[1][2] Russia's Lioubov Galkina, who led the field by a full point into the final with 399, had to settle for the silver with a total score of 501.5 points, while Czech Republic's Kateřina Kůrková held off a daunting challenge from Zhao Yinghui (500.8) to rule out the Chinese supremacy in the medal haul for a bronze at 501.1, falling Zhao to a disappointing fourth by a 0.3-point deficit.^[1]