Thinking of booking a young Olympic star for your next event? Read on to find out more about Amber Hill
For many of us, the up and coming young sports stars of today serve to remind us only of how quickly the years are advancing – but they’re also exciting – the superstars of tomorrow who could prove to be the next Mo Farrah or Jessica Ennis in time.
The youngest Olympic medallist on record is Dimitrios Loundras, a Greek gymnast who competed at the Olympic Games in 1900. Our latest tranche of young Olympians aren’t quite so youthful, but they’re certainly giving their older counterparts a real run for their money in some sports.
Skeet shooting isn’t one of the UK’s most well-known sports, but many of us will recognise the name purely by merit of having become aware of Amber Hill, who burst onto the scene in 2012 and has been causing a stir ever since. The British teenager helped to put the sport on the map and with the Rio Olympics on the horizon, there’s every reason to think that she may be in with a shot at a medal in this most prestigious tournament.
As someone who, at the age of 18 has already been on the circuit for six years and has won medals aplenty in adult competitions, Amber is certainly one to watch in the world of shooting. Whether you’re a long time shooting fanatic or just fancy seeing what it’s all about, it’s an easy sport to pick up the basics of and well worth tuning in next time it’s on TV to catch Amber in action.
Keep reading to find out more about skeet shooting, Amber’s rise to fame and the incredible trajectory she’s on now.
What is skeet shooting?
Skeet shooting is one of the three main disciplines of clay pigeon shooting, when the sport is played competitively and the name is thought to derive from the Norwegian word for shoot, ‘skyte’. Sportsmen and women attempt to hit and break clay targets which are mechanically flung into the air at a mixture of angles and at high velocity.
A variety of guns can be used in the sport and the preference varies from country to country and shooter to shooter. The sport is designed to imitate shooting birds in the wild, and the mixture of disks shot at high and low angles from different directions represents the way in which birds take flight.
Since it was first introduced in 1926, the sport has become a firm favourite across the globe, though it is particularly popular in the USA, where the game is played with slightly slower targets that are fractionally easier to break.
The rise and rise of Amber Hill
Amber Hill began shooting at the tender age of just 10 years old, after her grandfather introduced her to the sport. At the age of 12 she broke records and was selected for the England senior women’s team after shining in local competition, blazing a trail it’s hard to forget.
In 2013 she became the sport’s youngest ever winner, bagging a gold medal and establishing a junior record in the event at her first international sporting event. Aged just 15, she finished the 2013 season as the top ranked British shooter in her class, and ranked at #5 in the world, an accomplishment which saw her selected as the BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year.
Since then Hill’s form has only improved, and this year she’s expected to be one of team GB’s standout stars at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Corporate entertainment agency
If you’re looking to hire a celebrity to speak at your next event, then a budding young Olympian is far from the worst choice you could make. Guests will love the thrill of knowing that they’re in the presence of one of the world’s most elite athletes and hearing from the horse’s mouth what it feels like to compete in the top flights of a sport.
Amber Hill is on the books here at MN2S and available to book for public speaking engagements, product endorsements and at all sorts of events; if she’s not quite what you’re looking for then you’ll also find a plethora of other promising athletes, established names and retirees from competition on our books. Contact MN2S today to find out more about the names on our roster and how to book them.