Political science junior Caitlin Connor stuffs her 12-gauge Krieghoff shotgun in her camper-style backpack each afternoon before practice. As it goes in, the gold and silver medals in her bag clinks like windchimes.
It’s the same black North Face backpack she lugs around the world for competitions, from Egypt to Italy and Australia to Azerbaijan. Its contents tell the story of her accomplishments in women’s shooting, a decade-old passion of Connor’s.
“I like how competitive it is and how it usually comes down to one target, keeping ourselves and everyone else on the edge of their seats until it’s over,” Connor said.
Now, the 24-year-old LSU transfer student said she hopes to backpack her way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2016 Summer Olympics. She will compete for the last vacant spot on the U.S. women’s team when Olympic trials commence in Tucson, Arizona, in October.
Connor, who claimed the title of women’s skeet shooting national champion in June, ranks No. 2 worldwide in the sport and holds the record for best 100-straight.
“It still hasn’t sunk in yet,” Connor said. “It’s been by far my best year in shooting.”
Her world championship final round was a nail-biter, she said.
Connor was up against her teammate from the national team, fighting for one of the two remaining spots on the women’s Olympic team.
Her teammate won the shootout and took the global title, reserving one Olympic slot for herself.
However, Connor’s No. 2 rank may come in handy during Olympic trials because the No. 1 skeet shooter is already on the team. Connor said she feels confident about filling the last vacancy.
“I’m not really that nervous right now — I guess because I’ve been shooting against a lot of really good women shooters in the U.S.,” she said. “I shot against a 5-time Olympic medalist … and beat her.”
She said trials are split into two sessions — in October and May. Between the two sessions, competitors shoot 500 targets.
Whoever has the highest combined score will take the Olympic spot, Connor said.
Though her parents, three brothers and sister all practiced shooting recreationally in the Winnfield, Louisiana, area her whole life, Connor said she did not pick up the hobby until 2005, when she was 15 years old. What started out as a hobby turned into a competitive passion.
She moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2009 for Olympic training in shooting while also taking community college courses. Four years later, Connor returned to her northern Louisiana roots and enrolled at LSU-Eunice.
Before she thinks about making it to Rio, she said, she needs to focus on school. Connor joined the LSU main campus community in August for the fall semester.
“Shooting takes up most all of my time, so I’ve been trying to slowly tackle college,” she said.
Connor said she chose the flagship university’s Eunice location because it offered the most online classes, which worked best with her hectic traveling schedule, averaging three national competitions, four world cups and one world championship per year.
Outside training and the classroom, Connor said she enjoys putting her shooting skills to use for hunting. She said her favorite game is duck because she is most comfortable with flying targets.
Connor also said she likes to implement her political science education in response to gun control issues. She said she wants to use her knowledge of firearms to calm the public’s fears about gun violence.
She said she grew up around guns and feels comfortable with them.
“I feel as if younger people — like kids — felt more comfortable with them, all these accidents wouldn’t happen,” Connor said.

Gallery • 8 Photos

Zoe Geauthreaux

LSU political science major Caitlin Connor, 24, displays her ISSF World Championship medals on Friday, Sept. 18, 2015, at the Memorial Oak Grove courtyard.