Ragnar Skanåker

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Olympic medal record
Men's shooting
Gold 1972 Munich 50 m Pistol
Silver 1984 Los Angeles 50 m Pistol
Silver 1988 Seoul 50 m Pistol
Bronze 1992 Barcelona 50 m Pistol

Ragnar Skanåker (born June 8, 1934) is a Swedish pistol shooter who was a world-class shooter for an extremely long period. His international breakthrough came in the 1972 Olympics, where he won the 50 m Pistol event. He is mostly associated with this event, the only one in which he has won Olympic medals (four medals distributed over his participation in seven Olympic games), but he has also won the ISSF World Shooting Championships in 10 m Air Pistol and, surprisingly to most, in 25 m Standard Pistol in 1978, with a new world record (that is still as of 2005 a European record). Skanåker's Swedish record in 50 m Pistol is 583, two points over the current world record.

He has participated in Olympic games in 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996. He would have participated in Athens 2004 thanks to a special invitation from the International Olympic Committee, but the Swedish Olympic Committee decided not to let Skanåker participate due to insufficient results during the year. An upset Skanåker reported that he will be aiming to participate in 2008 instead, the year he turns 74.

Over the years, Skanåker has worked as a shooting coach in several countries, and designed shooting-specific equipment, sometimes in cooperation with famous weapon manufacturers such as Cesare Morini. Today, he still competes although less often at the international level. He also engages in various debates in Sweden. He also promotes the precision glasses he has designed.

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Olympic medalists in shooting | Olympic Champions in men's 50 m Pistol
Sumner Paine | Konrad Roderer | Paul van Asbroeck | Alfred Lane | Karl Telford Frederick | Torsten Ullman | Edwin Vazquez Cam | Huelet Benner | Pentti Linnosvuo | Alexei Gustchin | Väinö Markkanen | Grigori Kosych | Ragnar Skanåker | Uwe Potteck | Alexander Melentiev | Xu Haifeng | Sorin Babii | Kanstantsin Lukashyk | Boris Kokorev | Tanyu Kiryakov | Mikhail Nestruev
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