The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) is the governing body of Olympic shooting events. It also regulates several non-Olympic shooting sport events. The Federation's activities include regulation of the sport, managing Olympic qualification events and quota places, and organisation of tournaments like the World Cup and World Championships.
The ISSF was founded in 17 July 1907 and affiliates more than 150 National Shooting Federations. The ISSF headquarters is in Munich, Germany. Since 2022, the ISSF Presidency has been held by , a former Italian Senator and head of the Italian Clay Pigeon Federation (FITAV).
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ISSF banned Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from its competitions. This was relaxed to allow Individual Neutral Athletes to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Tournaments The ISSF recognizes the following competitions as ISSF Championships: The Olympic Games every four years (Olympic events only). The ISSF World Shooting Championships every four years, plus every other year for shotgun events. The ISSF World Cup four times a year plus a final (Olympic events only). The ISSF Junior World Cup four times a year plus a final (Olympic events only). Regional championships, such as the European Championships or the Pan-American Games, with regularity that is decided on the regional level.
These are the only competitions that have direct supervision from ISSF committees, and the only competitions where world records can be set. This leads to many national records in fact being higher than the world records.
Number Events First Last 1 World Championships 1897 2023 2 World Cup 1986 2024 3 Junior World Championships 2017 2021 4 Junior World Cup 2016 2022 5 World University Championships 2003 2018 6 World Military Championships 1957 2017
Disciplines
The ISSF currently sanctions five groups of shooting sport disciplines: Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, Running Target and Target Sprint. Running Target and Target Sprint both utilise rifles, but are contested separately from the conventional Rifle events as Running Target uses moving targets, and Target Sprint uses hit/miss scoring in a biathlon-like event. Many ranges equipped for conventional rifle and pistol events are not equipped for Running Target or Target Sprint.
The overview of disciplines includes only the distinct discipline itself. Some may have both men's and women's events, just one or the other, or else have variations including team shoots. These are not listed separately.
Pistol
ISSF Pistol events use a mix of cartridge and air pistols. Targets are static black circles, with scoring based on scoring rings. Timed events originally used turning frames to show or hide targets. However these now use static targets with red and green lights to indicate when shots may be fired. As most high level events now use electronic target systems, the target system will ignore or penalise shots fired early or late. This reduces the incidence of mechanical faults with the frame mechanism, which could require reshoots and affect the competition programme.
Olympic Events 10M Air Pistol - Slow-fire precision event using a .177 calibre air pistol 25M Pistol - Timed shooting at a single target using a .22lr pistol (Women only) 25M Rapid Fire Pistol - Timed shooting at five targets using a .22lr pistol (Men only)
Non-Olympic Events 25M Center-fire pistol 25M Standard Pistol 50M Pistol - Slow-fire precision shooting at a single target using a .22lr pistol
Rifle
ISSF Rifle events use a mix of cartridge and air rifles. Targets are static black circles, with scoring based on scoring rings.
Olympic Events 10M Air Rifle - Slow-fire precision event using a .177 calibre air rifle 50M Three-Position Rifle - Slow-fire precision event using a .22lr single-shot rifle with Kneeling, Prone and Standing phases
Non-Olympic Events 50M Prone Rifle - Slow-fire precision event using a .22lr single-shot rifle 300M Prone Rifle - Slow-fire precision event using a single-shot centre-fire rifle 300M Three-Position Rifle - Slow-fire precision event using a single-shot centre-fire rifle with Kneeling, Prone and Standing phases
Shotgun
Olympic Events Skeet Trap
Non-Olympic Events Double trap
Running Target ISSF Running Target events uses a mix of cartridge and air rifles. Targets are moving black circles, with scoring based on scoring rings. No Running Target events are contested at the Olympic Games.
10M Running Target - uses a single-shot 0.177 calibre air rifle 50M Running Target - uses a single-shot 0.22lr rifle
Target Sprint Target Sprint uses 0.177 air rifles. Targets are static black circles, with scoring based on hits/misses. Similar to Biathlon, Target Sprint involves running phases, interspersed with shooting. Unlike Biathlon, all shooting is done standing with no prone shoots. Additionally, rifles are not carried by the athlete whilst running and are left in a rack on the firing point. No Target Sprint events are contested at the Olympic Games.
History Development of shooting sports Target shooting sports developed rapidly through the second half of the 19th century as a side effect of national security concerns. The National Rifle Association was founded in London in 1859 with the aim of raising funds for a shooting competition (the Imperial Meeting) to promote marksmanship amongst the Volunteer movement. Similar organisations and events such as Frivilliga Skytterörelsen developed across the world, particularly in Europe and European colonies. By 1900, target shooting was well established as a popular recreational sport. Disciplines varied from one nation to another, often relevant to the service rifles in domestic use. For instance, fullbore target rifle was common across the British Empire.
First Olympiad and early 20th century Shooting was included in the first modern Olympic Games. Held in Athens in 1896, 39 shooters from seven nations competed in three pistol and two rifle events; they grew to 139 shooters from 13 nations in the following edition of the Games, held in Paris in 1900.
On 17 July 1907, representatives of seven national shooting federations, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands met in Zurich, Switzerland, to formally establish L'Union Internationale des Fédérations et Associations nationals de Tir (International Union of National Shooting Federations and Associations in English). That meeting is recognised as the first ISSF General Assembly. Daniel Mérillon, a French lawyer from Paris, was elected as the first ISSF President.
Following the desire of the first ISSF leaders to make their organisation a world sport institution, more national federations joined L'Unione Internationale in the ensuing years: in 1912, 284 shooters coming from 16 different countries participated in the Games of the V Olympiad. In 1916, World War I caused the cancellation of the Olympic Games and every international shooting event, and under the influence of President Mérillon, the union was dissolved.
In 1920 Mérillon invited representatives of the previous members and from the countries established after the war to meet in Paris on 16 April 1920, with the intent to renew ISSF activities. Delegates from 14 countries attended and agreed to re-establish the ISSF under the name L'Union Internationale de Tir (abbreviated as UIT, in English translated as International Shooting Union), and Mérillon was re-elected President of the Union. The current name was adopted in 1998.
In the first Olympic Games after the hiatus, held in Antwerp in the same year, 233 athletes from 18 nations participated in 21 shooting events. The following year, 1921, the International Olympic Committee, declared that the ISSF regulations were to govern the shooting events in the next Olympic Games: this was the first concrete step in forging a union between the ISSF and the IOC, a step that was to have such a profound impact on the Federation's future.
A crisis between the ISSF and the IOC happened between years 1926 and 1928: the practice of awarding money prizes in ISSF Championships clashed with the rigid amateur standards of the IOC, causing the Committee to exclude shooting from the 1928 Games in Amsterdam. After a formal appeal, in 1932 shooting was re-included in the Olympic program, but the number of events was widely reduced and many of the world's best marksmen were missing because they were labeled incompatible with the IOC amateur standards. A small sample of shooting events was present in the 1936 Berlin Olympic program, while the following year Catherine Woodring became the first woman to compete in a UIT World Championship event.
1940 marked another break in the history of Olympic Games and shooting due to World War 2. The federal books, with records and archives were transported from Paris to Stockholm - Sweden being a neutral country. After the conclusion of the conflict, in 1947, eight members agreed on holding a World Championship and a General Assembly in Stockholm, where Erik Carlsson was elected as the third president of the ISSF history.
Late 20th century The Pan-American Games and the Asian Games were both created, on their respective continents, as multi-sport international competitions, in 1951, and shooting was accepted in both. Since that year, Pan-Am Games and Asian Games have been staged every four years, with shooting always present in the program. Since 1954, the ISSF started adopting a four-year cycle for its World Championship. In 1966 the UIT decided to recognize its events as mixed ones, allowing women to compete alongside men in every official competition, including the 1968 Olympic Games and their three following editions.
In 1976 Hasler, after serving the ISSF for sixteen years, stepped down from the presidency, opening the way for his First Vice President George Vichos, whose administration lasted four years: during the ISSF General Assembly of the XXII Olympiad, held in Mexico City, Olegario Vázquez Raña emerged as the leading candidate for the presidency. The Mexican, an active shooter with four Olympic Games and five World Championship participations, was elected in February 1980, with 125 out of 132 votes in his favor. The 1980 General Assembly also elected Horst G. Schreiber, a prominent attorney in Munich, Germany, as the new Secretary General.
The constant growth of the member federations to over 100 changed the needs of the ISSF, leading the new leadership to the promotion of a new ISSF Constitution, drafted and approved in an Extraordinary General Assembly happened in Moscow in 1980. The new Constitution transferred the technical rule making authority to the Administrative Council, increased the authority of the ISSF Section Committees and strengthened the Federation's financial accountability. It also established the ISSF Women's Committee, that replaced the provisional 1977's Ladies Committee.
In 1984 Unni Nicolaysen became the first woman in the 77-year-old history of the Federation to be elected as a member of the Administrative Council. That same year, the IOC added three women's events to the Olympic shooting program.
Two years later, at the suggestion of the IOC, the ISSF developed an Olympic qualification system, establishing a new series of World Cups, including them in the system and recognizing their scores as potential World Records. The first ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup was held in Mexico City in March 1986, followed by the first ISSF Shotgun World Cup, held in Montecatini, Italy, in April. Since 1986, ISSF World Cup has been played on a yearly basis, always leading to an ISSF World Cup Final where shooters with the best scores were invited to compete in an elite competition at the end of each season. 25 junior events were added to the Championship programs in 1994.