While some champions expectedly succeeded, others were considered unlikely winners in 2024 and excelled against the odds.
Lee Meng Yuan comes alive on Olympic stage
Lee was finding new form at the Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait, starting the year with victory in the men's skeet for his first major title of his career. The then-29-year-old had meandered on the ISSF circuits for years with no silverware to take home, until he won bronze at the 2023 Asian Championships.
His qualification score of 121 at the 2024 edition was good enough to take him into the final, before excelling with a score of 57 to hold off India's Anant Naruka for the title.
Lee had never stood on an ISSF World Cup podium in his career and notably had a best finish of fifth. His second-best finish was 24th. While they were both set in 2024, he was not considered a favourite at the Olympic Games.
Yet, the Chinese Taipei athlete performed when it mattered the most. He qualified third for the final with an improved score since the Asian Championships and soon found himself holding off Tammaro Cassandro for the bronze medal. While he could not overcome the American duo of his personal hero Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince; Lee must have been pinching himself. His first global medal saw him etched into Olympic history.
Ruano excels in women's trap final
At this stage, Adriana Ruano's story of an injured gymnast later inspired to take up shooting has been told exhaustively, as has her achievement of becoming the first Guatemalan Olympic champion. However, there has been little focus on how unlikely this victory was on paper.
Ruano was in solid form in qualification, sitting third in the standings on 122 and held the lead after the first series in the final, refusing to give it up throughout the competition. By the end, not only had she made history for Guatemala, but she had set a new Olympic record in the process with 45 targets successfully struck from a possible 50.
But what was Ruano's form previous to that? She was 26th in Tokyo and has never made the top 30 at the ISSF World Championships. She has one World Cup medal - but it came as part of the women's team in Lima in 2022. Her two individual top 10s came in 2021 and 2022.
The only true indicators of form saw Ruano finish fourth at the Olympic Qualification Championship this year, and her victory at the 2023 Pan American Games. Even then in Lima, Ruano qualified for the final with a total of 111 - far below the threshold for the Olympic final - and scored 38 in the final to take gold.
Not only was Ruano's victory a surprise, but it showed what is possible when an athlete has the right day and performs to their absolute best.
Patience a virtue for Marinov with ISSF World Cup medal
At the age of 29, Slovakia's Filip Marinov had just a trap team silver medal to his name at international level from 2021. He had never appeared at the ISSF World Championships as a senior and had not featured at the European Championships since 2017, finishing 48th.
Prior to arriving in Baku, he had just two individual top 20s on the ISSF World Cup circuit and shortly would achieve his best result to date, a silver in the men's trap final. First, Olympic medallist Matthew John Coward-Holley from Great Britain faltered, before Marinov held his nerve to see off Paris 2024 medallist Jean Pierre Brol of Guatemala to make the final showdown with Paris 2024 finalist James Willett from Australia.
Although Willett was too strong on the day, Marinov had a day he would never forget and achieved it, completely against the odds.
Ibarra breaks through to senior ranks with ISSF World Cup silver
Andrea Ibarra had a decent junior career that saw the Mexican make the World Championships final of the women's 10m air pistol, but at 20 years old, found herself in the awkward step of trying to find success against older counterparts.
Modest showings at the 2023 World Championships were followed by an ISSF World Cup opener for 2024 in Cairo where she made the final, finishing eighth.
Soon after, Ibarra was in the final again, this time in Granada. After sitting in the midpack, she started to emerge as a contender for the medals, sitting ahead in the standings of Manu Bhaker. Slowly she ate away at the lead of Klaudia Bres from Poland and with her final two shots did what looked unlikely - took the fight for gold to a shoot-off.
A shot of 9.8 was not good enough for the top spot on the podium as Bres scored 10.2, but it showed the potential of Ibarra on the international stage, a promising sign going into 2025.
Sonam Maskar strikes lucky twice on ISSF World Cup circuit
Indian shooting is enjoying an exciting period full of promising future stars. Among them is Sonam Maskar, who was competing in her first senior season.
Her junior career was respectable, albeit lacking in silverware. She just missed the podium in fourth at the 2023 Asian Championships and finished seventh at the World Championships the same year.
The ISSF World Cup debut was one to remember in Cairo, where she won silver in the women's 10m air rifle final, running Germany's Anna Janssen close for the gold. It came a day after she won silver with Arjun Babuta in the mixed team event, losing the deciding round to Great Britain's Seonaid McIntosh and Dean Bale after the score was tied at 14-14. A great way to introduce herself.
While the rest of the season was understated, Maskar returned for the ISSF World Cup Final in her home nation, with the event held in New Delhi. Top names like Han Jiayu, Oceanne Muller and Anna Janssen fell by the wayside, but Maskar chased after Huang Yuting of China in the battle for gold. She again came up short, but this time, to a new world record from her opponent.
Honourable mentions: Romain Aufrere, Emely Jaeggi, Devi Anuradha, Ole Martin Halvorsen.