First markswoman in history to win an Olympic medal
(men and women competed against her)
Born 1942
- She learned how to shoot by following her father to the rifle range
- Attended Kansas State University
- competed on the Kansas State University men’s rifle team
– winning two Big Eight Conference championships
– the university’s first female student to earn a varsity letter - four-years in the U.S. Army, assigned as a shooting instructor at Fort Benning, achieved the rank of major
- 1966 World Champion in Women’s Standard Rifle
- first woman to win an individual open World Shooting Championship
- 1967 she won two gold medals in small-bore rifle at the Pan American Games and set a world record, for men or women, in the kneeling rifle shooting
- 1976 first woman ever on the U.S. Olympic shooting team
- 1976 silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics
- first woman to win a medal in Shooting at the Summer Olympics
- 1977 retired from competitive shooting at age 35 and become a registered nurse
- 1992 named to the U.S. International Shooting Hall of Fame
- In international competition Murdock set four individual world records and nine team world records
- She is a member of five halls of fame, including
USA Shooting Hall of Fame and Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
My first year at K-State, I couldn’t shoot on the team because I was a female. I could practice with the K-State team but I couldn’t be on the team. They got a new coach and he thought it would be a good idea for me to be on the team since I was shooting better than everyone else. ”
— Murdock, reminiscing in 2011
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