Russell Mark

Russell Andrew Mark, OAM (born 25 February 1964) is an Australian Olympic Champion and World Champion marksman. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the Double Trap event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and a silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Russell Mark competed in six Olympic Games, making him one of the most experienced Australian Olympians.

Mark was the first Australian to win an individual ISSF World Cup in any Shooting discipline, achieving this in Los Angeles in 1991. He also won several World Cup gold medals in different cities around the world. In 2006, he won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in the men's Double Trap event.

In August 2024, Russell Mark began working with the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) to help train their coaches. He also co-founded a successful clay target shooting coaching company with his wife, Lauryn Mark, which created many instructional videos for their popular YouTube channel. Russell Mark's achievements have made him a legendary figure in the world of shooting sports.

Personal life

Education

Russell Mark grew up in Ballarat, Victoria. He went to Brown Hill Primary School from 1969 to 1974 and then to Ballarat East High School, also known as Woodman's Hill Secondary College, from 1975 to 1981. In his last year, he was chosen as the school captain. Later, he studied Business and Property Valuation at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology from 1982 to 1985.

Competition shooting career

Russell Mark had an amazing career in shooting. He won an Olympic gold medal and a silver medal, as well as two World Championship silver medals. He also won six World Cup Championships and two World Team Championships. Mark holds the record for the most Australian Clay Target Association National Open Championships, with 39 wins.

In 1992, he made history by hitting more than one thousand targets in a row during a competition in Tamworth, NSW. He also set a record by hitting 288 targets in a row in 1990. In 1997, he won the men's Double Trap World Championship in Peru with a new World Record. Mark was ranked number one in the world for Men's Double Trap many times between 1994 and 2003. He won a gold medal at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006 and competed in the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, finishing fifth. He planned to compete in the London 2012 Olympics for his sixth time. Mark also competed in six Commonwealth Games and 22 consecutive ISSF World Championships. He announced his retirement from international competition in 2014.

Olympic results
Event	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008
Trap (mixed)	15th 144+47	9th 144+49	Not held
Trap (men)	Not held		13th 120	13th 113	—	—	—
Double trap (men)	Not held		Gold 141+48	Silver 143+44	—	5th 136+45	20th 128

Coaching career

Russell Mark is a top coach in clay target shooting and has helped many people from around the world improve their skills. He has worked with teams and athletes from countries such as Great Britain, the USA, Qatar, India, and many more.

In 1996, he coached a prince from Brunei for two weeks. In 2004, he helped the Indian marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, where he won India's first ever individual Olympic silver medal.

Honours

Russell Mark received many awards for his achievements in shooting. In 1997, he was given the Order of Australia Medal for his contributions to sports, and in 2000, he received the Australian Sports Medal.

In 2007, he was recognized in Munich, Germany, as one of the greatest Double Trap shooters of all time by the International Shooting Sports Federation, along with other top shooters like Luciano Giovannetti from Italy, Kimberly Rhode from the USA, and Susan Nattrass from Canada. In 2019, he was honored by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, becoming only the second shotgun shooter to receive this distinction.