LAGAN Alexis

General
SPORT VS AIR PISTOL
She enjoys competing in both sport and air pistol events but admits they appeal to different aspects of her character. "With air pistol, it's more relaxing. You are really focusing on one single aspect of shooting. It's a real high amount of mental exhaustion that you feel after air pistol. With sport pistol, it's a little more dynamic. If I'm feeling a little antsy, and just want to get out on the range, sport pistol is typically what I like to aim for. With air pistol it definitely draws me in, especially as a physicist, you really learn how to stop everything and focus on one thing at a time and put in that mental step, only that mental ability that you have into one aspect. That very much transfers over to shooting, and shooting air pistol, to focus on that one thing at that one time. Sport pistol is more like what you'd expect. It's more entertaining to watch too. It's a little bit faster and a little more dynamic." (airgunhobbyist.com, 01 Jan 2018)

PICKING UP PISTOL
While attending University of Utah, coaches Matt DeLong and Elwood Powell got her started in pistol with the university's pistol marksmanship team. "I had never shot an air pistol before. I saw that the marksmanship team was recruiting. I signed up, went down to the basement, and tried it out. I called my dad afterwards and said, 'This is the dumbest thing I've ever done. They're using BB guns!' My dad told me to give it another shot, and by the end of the week, I was completely addicted. It struck me on a competitive level. I needed to beat the boys again, and I had so much fun doing it. When I first got started, it was more of a way for me to make friends at college. It wasn't with the idea of going on the Olympics. It was very different for me to go to shooting for fun to shooting as an Olympian." (nrafamily.org, 27 Jun 2018; usashooting.org, 01 Jul 2017; airgunhobbyist.com, 01 Jan 2018)

FUTURE PLANS
She graduated from the University of Utah in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in pre-law physics, and may consider a career in law after exploring her Olympic potential. "For now, I'm going to focus on shooting until the next Olympics [in 2020]. If I feel strong about going for another quad [2024], then I'll go for it. If it just isn't in the cards, then I'll look at furthering my education in law school with the goal of becoming a patent lawyer." (nrafamily.org, 27 Jun 2018)

SINGER
At age 14 she received a letter from the White House for singing the US national anthem over 150 times at events. (usashooting.org, 31 Aug 2019)