Freshman pistol team member Katelyn Abeln and junior pistol team member Samuel Gens practice shooting in Converse Hall. Credit: Griffin Strom | Sports Editor
Some kids play with dolls.
At 7 years old, Katelyn Abeln was shooting BB guns.
Less than a decade later, it was a pistol, as the Douglasville, Georgia, native’s marksmanship took her all the way to Pilsen, Czech Republic, for her first international competition in 2017.
“When I saw my name and it said USA next to it, I was like, ‘Whoa, this is real,’” Abeln said.
Since then, Abeln’s talents have allowed her to travel the globe, competing in places such as Germany, Korea and Brazil — all before starting college. Now a freshman on the Ohio State pistol team, Abeln’s looking to punch her ticket to a new destination:
The 2020 Summer Olympics.
“Going into a match with no expectations is the best option, but obviously, we expect things out of ourselves,” Abeln said.
The first major step toward realizing her Olympic goal was taken just over a month into her first semester of college, as Abeln placed eighth in the Olympic Trials Part 1 for 25M sport pistol in Fort Benning, Georgia.
It was at Fort Benning in 2015 that Abeln said she encountered now-Ohio State head coach Emil Milev, a six-time Olympian for the Bulgarian and U.S. national pistol teams, who won the silver medal in 1996.
Though neither knew they’d wind up together in Columbus in a few years’ time, Abeln made quite an impression.
“I kind of remember her, this small little girl, holding this big gun –– it was like the smallest gun we had at the time –– and all of a sudden I see a world-class score with that gun. Wow, what’s going on here?” Milev said.
Abeln began shooting competitively on a 4-H BB gun team in Georgia before switching to pistol under her father Jerry’s tutelage. It took just six months of shooting before Abeln qualified for the Junior Olympics in Colorado, her first major competition, where she turned 14.
She earned medals for sport pistol at the event every year from 2016-18, but in 2017, Abeln took the first-place prize, winning gold in what she called a surreal moment.
The following two years were full of more surreal moments for Abeln, whose participation in a litany of overseas competitions made Colorado look like a road trip.
It was in China that Abeln said she first felt like a true contender, and she was most excited to see Brazil this year. But it was her silver medal at the 2018 World Championships in Korea that she said is her proudest accomplishment to date.
No longer just turning heads at the junior level, Abeln turned her eye to Ohio State, where Milev accepted the head coaching position in 2017. He delivered a national title in the 2018 Intercollegiate Pistol Championships while going 25-0 in open competition.
While she considered other schools that had gun ranges, Abeln leaned toward Ohio State, as the only nonmilitary school in the country to offer pistol scholarships. Soon, she was reunited with Milev.
“Having a good coach can make or break you,” Abeln said.
The same could be said about teammates.
Junior Samuel Gens was a first team All-American in free and air pistol in his first two seasons with the Buckeyes, and won the 2019 free pistol national championship. Despite his laundry list of collegiate accolades, Gens said it isn’t normal for Abeln to be this accomplished so early in her career.
“No. I came, I didn’t win anything, I hadn’t gone anywhere,” Gens said.
Gens and Abeln will compete at the first leg of the air pistol Olympic Trials in December. Both said they’d be disappointed not to qualify, but Abeln said guidance from an experienced Olympian helps put wind in her sails.
“Before the Olympic trials, I asked him, ‘How did you deal with the pre-match anxiety, the nerves and stuff?’ And his experience has really helped me get through that match and just stay calm and keep my cool,” Abeln said.
Gens said the team spends 20 hours a week practicing at the gun range located in Converse Hall, which doesn’t include time spent on weekend competitions, in which Ohio State is undefeated so far this season. Different pistol events feature a fixed number of rounds fired over varying lengths of time, with scores added together for a team aggregate.
Against Army West Point Oct.18-19, Abeln broke the individual women’s air pistol record with a score of 569, with her and Gens taking the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. The team air pistol score set a new school record.
“I don’t think people realize how hard it truly is and how much time we all sacrifice to get good at what we do,” Abeln said. “It’s not easy whatsoever.”
While she’s racked up individual glory in the shooting community, Abeln said she faces misconceptions about what she does, including people not knowing that the team exists at Ohio State or how the sport works.
Abeln said hunting and shooting were routine for her family in Georgia, but some question the safety of her sport.
“Our organizing body is USA Shooting, and when you type that in, and there’s just been a shooting in the U.S., the first thing that pops up is the article about a shooting that happened, and not our organizing body’s page,” Abeln said. “It sucks because they’re not tied together at all.”
Regardless of the outside world’s understanding, Abeln is no less committed to excellence on the gun range.
That commitment is what Milev said will push his star pupil to yet another plateau of performance.
“I think that she’s not going to let go,” Milev said. “And that’s going after it and [being] relentless.”
