McINTOSH Seonaid

General
SHOOTING DYNASTY
She says she enjoys coming from a well-known shooting family. She and older sister Jen have both trained under their father's guidance, and the sisters have competed regularly against one another, including at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, where Seonaid beat Jen in all three events the siblings entered. They have also competed together, and won a team bronze medal, in the women's 50m rifle prone event at the 2018 World Championships in Changwon, Republic of Korea. Jen retired from shooting in September 2018, and after Seonaid was selected for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo she said she would be seeking advice from Jen. "I've spoken to my sister [Jen], obviously she's got way more experience than I do, and she's given me some pointers. Commonwealth Games, because of all the family stuff, is also huge but she's told me the Olympics are very different. So I'm taking advice from her and just going with the flow." (bbc.co.uk, 13 Jan 2021; scottishtargetshooting.co.uk, 19 Sep 2018; edinburghnews.scotsman.com, 04 Sep 2018; Winning Students Youtube page, 04 Jul 2017)

COACHED BY FATHER
She enjoys being coached by her father, Donald McIntosh. "We get on really, really well and he's like my best friend. You can always trust your coach and it's a different kind of trust when it's your dad. When I am upset or need a hug, I can go and get that from him. He's always there with me. We have so many things in common that aren't shooting and we can chat about a lot of things which aren't work-related, which is really nice." (alloaadvertiser.com, 27 May 2020)

ARTHRITIS
She has struggled at times with arthritis, predominantly in the joints in her legs, but also in her wrists. She says new medication in 2017 has helped stabilise the condition. "I had to do a lot of therapy to build muscle back into my legs and get my balance back. It was quite a long process but I think it has made me a better shooter in the long run. Normally when my knees are bad, I can get about on crutches but when your wrists are bad as well, you can't hold the crutches and that was really, really difficult and really painful. It only lasts a few days at a time but it is enough. I could be on a crutches a couple of days after competing but now [2017] that I am on the new medication, that helps." (edinburghnews.scotsman.com, 02 Dec 2017; heraldscotland.com, 01 Dec 2017)

COMMONWEALTH EXCLUSION
She believes the exclusion of shooting from the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, could be a "good thing" for the sport in Scotland. "You will lose people at the bottom and that's sad, but I think your top end people will get better. They'll have to if they want to continue in the sport. So I'm hoping it makes the sport step up in this country, because if you don't have Commonwealth Games the next logical next step for people to aim for is European or Olympic Games." (issf-sports.org, 24 Oct 2019)

FURTHER STUDIES
After completing a bachelor's degree in electrical and electronics engineering at Heriot-Watt University in 2019, she began a master's degree in performance psychology at Edinburgh University in Scotland in 2020. (Instagram profile, 24 Jan 2021; bbc.co.uk, 13 Jan 2021)

At the 2018 World Championships in Changwon, Republic of Korea, her gold medal in the 50m rifle prone event made her the first female shooter from Great Britain to win an individual world championship title. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 May 2021)