An alum who competed on the rifle team during his time at Murray State made it to the Olympics this year.
Ivan Roe is originally from Manhattan, Montana and gained an interest in marksmanship training at a young age. He said his father was an avid hunter and wanted to pass along the hobby to his children but ensure they were going to handle any weapon safely.
“There was a local gun club and shooter safety organization (that) he signed (my siblings and I) up for,” Roe said. “They did 30 minutes of marksmanship training and 30 minutes of hunters’ education on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He gave us the option to continue after a year and I kind of never stopped, it snowballed from there.”
When it came time for college, there weren’t many rifle teams in his area nor were there many programs offered that he was interested in. This is how he stumbled upon Murray State.
“I wanted to do a degree that had something to do with the water, like marine biology or aquatic biology,” Roe said. “Because it is right next to Land Between the Lakes, they had the aquatic biology degree and it kind of fit. It was also that college town feeling that I really enjoyed.”
During Roe’s time at Murray State, he competed in 39 matches with the rifle team. He averaged 587.4 in smallbore, 594.1 in air rifle and 1181.5 in aggregate, setting records for the University in 2016-2017. Roe had numerous honorable mentions from the Ohio Valley Conference, Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association and the National Rifle Association.
Roe joined the United States Army after he graduated from Murray State. He is a part of a marksmanship unit that specializes in shooting and teaching the fundamentals of shooting to soldiers. While it is a job, there are still opportunities for competition across the world.
Roe said competing in the Olympics was not only overwhelming, but surreal. Luckily, his wife and family were able to support him.
“In every interview while I was there, I said it hadn’t really hit me yet that I was going to be an Olympian,” he said. “The first day of competition, I was sitting in my chair waiting for the competition to start and so many emotions hit me. It was so much to take in at once.”
Roe said he plans to take some time off to recover mentally and focus on his next opportunity to compete in the Olympic games in 2028 in Los Angeles, California.
