Lones Wigger
 | This article is currently being heavily edited because its subject has recently died. Information about their death and related events may change significantly and initial news reports may be unreliable. The most recent updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
| File:79wigger.jpg New World Record 1979 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Lones Wesley Wigger, Jr. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | USA | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 25 August 1937 Great Falls, Montana, United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 14 December 2017 (aged 80) Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Sports shooting Competitive Rifle Shooting | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Lones W. Wigger, Jr. (August 25, 1937 - December 14, 2017) was a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. Wigger was a member of the United States Olympic team on three occasions, winning two Olympic Gold Medals.[1][2]
Wigger is often regarded as the greatest competitive rifle shooter ever produced in the United States. He made every Olympic Shooting Team between 1968 and 1980, he held or co-held 27 world records – 14 team and 13 individual. He won 58 National Championships of almost every variety since 1963. He was a member of 16 major U.S. international teams, starting with the 1963 Pan-American Games and his record includes: 22 World Championships (two individual, 20 team); seven Pan-American titles; 18 victories in the Championship of the Americas meet; 16 victories in the Council Internationale Sport du Militaire meet; and in those four meets, plus the Olympics, he won 108 medals.
He was born in Great Falls, Montana.
Wigger was a member of the Olympic shooting team in 1964, 1968,1972 and 1980. The 1964 effort resulted in a gold medal. He won the gold for the three position small-bore rifle with a score of 1164, and also won a silver medal for small-bore rifle, prone position with a score of 597. In 1972, Wigger won the gold medal for free rifle, 3 position, with a score of 1155.[3]
Lones Wigger was on the United States Army Marksmanship Unit, and competed in international matches representing the United States for 20 years.
He was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in June 2008.[4]
He ran the 23rd Infantry Division Sniper School in Vietnam in 1971[5].
His daughter Deena Wigger was on the 1988 Olympic air rifle squad.
His son Ron Wigger served as the head rifle coach of the West Point rifle team for fourteen seasons. Under him, the team qualified for the championships in nine seasons, capturing the title in 2005, bronze in 2006 and silver for two years after that.
His son Danny Wigger is a very accomplished Smallbore Rifle Prone Shooter won the anysight National Team Championships at Camp Perry in 2008 along with Brent Jarboe, Dave Cloft and Mike O'Connor firing as the SEMNO (Southeast Michigan and Northern Ohio) Rifle Team.
Until 2016 he was active in growing the National Junior Olympic Shooting Program, volunteering and organizing countless shooting matches, serving on the USA Shooting Board for various terms through 2016, even coming to work daily at the USA Shooting headquarters and managing the USA Shooting Alumni program. He passed away on the evening of December 14, 2017 at his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado of complications from pancreatic cancer.[6]
References
- ^ Tribune Staff. "125 Montana Newsmakers: Lones Wigger Jr". Great Falls Tribune. Retrieved August 24, 2011.
- ^ "Lones Wigger". Sports Reference. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
- ^ "Lones Wigger, Sr. Obituary". Archived from the original on June 16, 2011.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Chicago 2016 | Flickr". Secure.flickr.com. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
- ^ American Rifleman magazine, April 1978, "Hits Count" by LTC Lones Wigger, Jr.
- ^ ""Lones Wigger: Legend Lost"". USA Shooting. USA Shooting, a 501c3 non-profit corporation.
External links
|
| |
| Any position | |
| Kneeling | |
| Prone | |
| Standing | |
| Team |
|
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- Recent deaths
- 1937 births
- 2017 deaths
- Sportspeople from Great Falls, Montana
- American male sport shooters
- United States Distinguished Marksman
- ISSF rifle shooters
- Olympic shooters of the United States
- Shooters at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- Shooters at the 1968 Summer Olympics
- Shooters at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in shooting
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States in shooting
- Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- USA Shooting Hall of Fame inductees
- Pan American Games medalists in shooting