Staff Sgts. Rachel Tozier and Will Hinton of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit qualified for the Games in trap shooting during USA Shooting’s Shotgun Olympic Trials in Tucson, Ariz. ( USA Shooting)

Two U.S. Army soldiers will get their shot at Olympic medals in Paris this summer after earning spots Sunday on the U.S. shooting team.

Staff Sgts. Rachel Tozier, 31, and Will Hinton, 28, of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit qualified for the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics in trap shooting during USA Shooting’s Shotgun Olympic Trials in Tucson, Ariz. The competition started March 11 and ended Sunday. Also earning spots were Ryann Phillips in women’s trap and Derrick Mein in men’s trap.

Tozier and Hinton, both from Fort Moore, Ga., competed side by side in 10 25-target qualification rounds with the top trap shooters from across the U.S., including past Olympic medalists.

Tozier of Pattonsburg, Mo., beat 49 other competitors in women’s trap. Hinton of Dacula, Ga., beat 121 other shooters. Both soldiers are instructors/competitive shooters for the USAMU Shotgun Team.

“It really hasn’t set in right now, but it’s pretty awesome,” Hinton said. “I came in quite a few targets back, so it’s been a grind this entire time, so I am still kind of processing the work I put in and where I am now. Everything I’ve been doing, you know all my training, has put me in where I am at so I have to trust in that, and I am just happy to be on the team.”

Competing in the Olympics has long been a goal for Tozier.

“There are not really words and I don’t think it has really hit me yet,” Tozier said. “... When I was a senior in high school, I wrote that I wanted to make the Olympic team ... so it’s nice to be able to cross that off.”

More U.S. Army soldiers will be targeting Olympic spots in rifle and pistol categories this week in a three-day event at Fort Moore, Ga.

Participants from around the country will compete Sunday through Tuesday in four events: women’s 25m sport pistol, men’s rapid fire pistol, and men’s and women’s 50m smallbore.

Soldiers from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit’s International Rifle Team will seek spots in the men’s and women’s 50m smallbore. They will compete in qualifying events Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The final competitions and Team USA selections will be on Tuesday at 2 p.m. for the men and at 3:15 p.m. for the women.

In January, Sgt. Sagen Maddalena and Sgt. Ivan Roe earned a trip to Paris in the 10m air rifle trials. Roe, 28, of Manhattan, Mont., will be competing in his first Olympics. It will be the second Olympics for Maddalena, 30, of Groveland, Calif. She competed at the 2020/2021 Tokyo Olympics in the 50m Smallbore event and placed fifth.

U.S. Army Sgts. Sagen Maddalena and Ivan Roe earned spots on Team USA in the 10m air rifle event for the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) Judith Legerski Competition Center in Anniston, Ala., Jan. 5-7, 2024. (Michelle Lunato/U.S. Army)