Happy New Year, everyone. We here at "Inside USA Shooting" are busy keeping up with America's best shooters, and hope your year is off to great start. Today's blog is about something we don't usually cover, but I suspect one word will catch your attention: MONEY.

It's somewhat of a little known fact that Olympic Athletes – while considered "amateurs" – can get paid for their performances. And I'm not talking about getting paid with medals, products, clothing or other perks. I'm talking about cold, hard CASH. The United States Olympic Committee has an incentive program for athletes that earn medals, and USA Shooting is included in that program. That means that each of the six USA Shooters who medaled in Beijing recently received their bonus checks for their great showing at the Olympics. Check out these numbers:

Gold medal winners Vincent Hancock (Skeet) and Glen Eller (Double Trap) got $80,000 EACH from USA Shooting.
Silver medal winners Matt Emmons (Men's Prone Rifle) and Kim Rhode (Skeet) got $40,000 EACH from USA Shooting.
Bronze medal winners Corey Cogdell (Trap) and Jason Turner (Men's Air Pistol) got $24,000 EACH from USA Shooting.

And that's not all: In addition to those awards, the medalists received checks from the U.S. Olympic Committee as well. Gold medalists got $25,000 each, silver medalists received $15,000 each and bronze medal winner were given checks for $10,000 each. Add them together and you can see that our "amateur" athletes can definitely earn a great living with their skills.

I don't know what each athlete is going to use the money for, but just for kicks, I'll throw out some guesses based on how I know each of these shooters as people. These are total speculation, and I'm doing it just for fun. (I wonder what each of these shooters will say to me the next time I see them . . .they'll either chuckle and say I was "right on the nose", or they'll chuckle and say, "Smith, you don't me very well, do you?!". Either way, we'll get a good laugh out of it.)

Since Vincent Hancock just got married, I suspect he and wife Rebekah might look for a house. Rebekah is in nursing school, so perhaps some of that gold medal money will go towards tuition.

Glen Eller may also use his money for a house – he's been sharing a house near the Fort Benning, Georgia base. But Glen is such a fun-loving guy that I would imagine some of that money will go towards "toys". He already has a terrific maroon Hummer for a car, but I wouldn't be shocked if he adds something to his fleet.

The silver medal winners for USA Shooting are both settled down in their lives, so I would look for Matt and Kim to use their windfall for something practical. Kim is getting married this spring, so some money will likely go towards the nuptials. Besides that, she loves to fix up old cars, invest in real estate and is considering veterinarian school. All "practical" uses for her cash.

I would guess that Matt and his wife, Katy, might look into buying a house, but the question is where. They're both still training for the next Olympics, so staying in Colorado Springs, CO, would make sense. But Matt has said on a few occasions that his dream is to return to Alaska (where he attended college), so maybe they'll "pull the trigger" (pun fully intended) on a place up there. And considering Katy is from the Czech Republic, maybe they'll look for something over there as well.

The bronze medalists are the hardest ones to pin down. Corey is a self-described "Tomboy" who loves all sorts of outdoor activities – especially hunting and fishing. Maybe some exotic "cast and blast" trip in her future? She is also an admitted "Shoe-A-Holic", so a few trips to the mall are likely in the mix. And she loves to cook AND tune up cars. . .  so a buck-or-two might be spent on those hobbies. Hard to predict what any 21-year-old will do with a dollar, let alone $34,000 of them, so we'll see what Corey dreams up.

Jason will likely spend some his money on one of his favorite hobbies: golf.  You know, that's one of my favorite hobbies also. Hmmm. Well I better wrap up this blog and put in a call to my "old friend and buddy" Jason (wink, wink) and see if I can get in on these golf treats! Gotta go.

See you soon here on the Outdoor Channel blog site!

Happy holidays, everyone. We here at "Inside USA Shooting" hope you are having a great season thus far.

2008 is winding down, and for USA Shooting that means handing out awards for the best shooting athletes of the year. Each year USAS selects one female shooter and one male shooter for the honor. This year's "2008 USAS Athletes of the Year" are both shotgun shooters and Olympic medalists in Beijing: Kim Rhode for the women and Glenn Eller for the men.

The selections are not huge surprises, considering the great performances Eller and Rhode had all year. It's important to note that the "Athlete of the Year" selection for USAS is not subjective – like, for example, the Sports Illustrated annual award which is based largely on editorial discussion and argument. The USAS athletes are selected through a points system that takes into account USAS Policies and Procedures, as well as performances.

Rhode's title as "USAS Female Athlete of the Year" gives her back-to-back claims to that title: She was also the 2007 USAS Female Athlete of the year. She earned the award this year for performances like her Beijing Olympic silver medal in skeet, her silver medal at the World Cup (Texas) in May, fourth place finishes at the World Cup in Germany and Belarus, and for being named 2008 National Champion. On top of that, Rhode finished second at the Shotgun Fall Selection Match, earning her a spot on the 2009 World Shotgun Championship Team.

The California native and four-time Olympic Medal winner has been plenty busy away from the range, gearing up for her wedding next spring. It'll be fun to watch next year as one of the greatest shooters in American sport shooting history balances her life while still competing at the highest level.

Double trap shooter Glen Eller entered 2008 hot and stayed that way all year en route to earning his USAS Male Athlete of the Year award. He took silver at the World Cup in Beijing in April, then fourth place at the World Cups in Texas and Germany, and finished first at the Olympic Selection Match. He then put an exclamation point on his already impressive career with a double trap gold medal at the Beijing Games.

It seems like every single shotgun competition we covered this year on "Inside USA Shooting" had the same progression of events: Spectators and competitors spend the first few days talking about how good the Men's Double Trap shooters are, and how deep the talent is: Besides Eller, there's Jeff Holguin, Josh Richmond and Bill Keever, all from the Army Marksmanship Unit and all capable of taking the top spot at any event. But this year it seemed like "The Four Horsemen" (as they are called) would battle for the first few rounds, virtually rotating between the top four spots ... until Eller would stick up a couple of rounds of 49 out of 50 or 50 out of 50. Next thing you know, entering the finals, Eller would have a six or eight point lead over the field and would cruise to victory. Now that may be stretching the facts a bit, because every competition is different, but take it from a guy who was at many of those events: This year it just "felt" like Eller would pull away and win. He was just that hot all year. He is a very deserving recipient of the USAS Male Athlete of the Year award.

Eller and Rhode will now have their names submitted to the U.S. Olympic Committee for consideration for the 2008 USOC Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards. The top athletes from each sport within the USOC are nominated for the coveted recognition as the top overall athletes in the entire USOC family.

While Eller and Rhode were selected as the overall USAS Athletes of the Year, USA Shooting also acknowledges the best shooters from each discipline, based on who earned the highest number of points in each discipline. This year's winners are Jamie Beyerle for women's rifle, Matt Emmons for men's rifle, and Jason Turner for men's pistol.