An Olympic berth for Paris 2024 is up for grabs in each of the 12 individual events at the XIV Olympic Qualification Rifle and Pistol Championships in Buenos Aires, where the finals begin today. 

The event, the most important ISSF shooting competition in the Americas, is named after Julio Oscar Escalante in recognition of his decades of work as a national and international sports leader. The 10m air pistol competitions for men and women will be the first to be decided at the Americas Championships in the Argentine capital. 

168 athletes from 21 countries will compete at the Argentine Federal Shooting Range in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA). The hosts will field 21 competitors, while Canada and the United States will have teams of 16, including 30-year-old Sagen Maddalena, who finished fifth at the Tokyo 2020 Games and won bronze in the 50m rifle triple at last year's World Championships.

Brazil also has a strong team with 15 members, one more than Guatemala, whose athletes will now be able to compete under their own flag and anthem following the recent decision by the International Olympic Committee to lift the ban imposed on their National Olympic Committee in 2022 which, among other things, prevented them from fully participating in the last Pan American Games in Santiago in 2023.

Mexico, whose team includes 20-year-old Andrea Ibarra Miranda, ranked fourth in the world in the women's 10m air pistol, will field a total of 14 athletes. Cuba, on the other hand, will have eight athletes, including Leuris Pupo, who is ranked ninth in the world in the 25m rapid pistol.

Today is the first day of five finals in a championship that will end on Sunday (7 April) with the men's 25 m rapid pistol.