Sharpshooting grandmother targets more Paralympic medals

An eclectic mix of notable events from 1942 included the premiere of the film Casablanca, the British public being asked to bathe in less than five inches of water to help the war effort, Duck Tape was invented and Elizabeth "Libby" Kosmala (nee Richards) was born in Adelaide, Australia.

On Sunday, at the Deodoro complex, she completed the second of two events in shooting, the Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 in which she placed 37th – she finished 18th in the qualifier for the Women’s AR Standing SH1 last Friday – at the grand old age of 74; the oldest participant in the Rio Paralympics.

It is her 11th consecutive Games during which time she has amassed nine gold medals, three silvers and a bronze, the latter in swimming, and potentially not her last. At least according to her husband Stan Kosmala (66, also confined to a wheelchair), whom she married 40 years ago when the pair met at the Hampstead Rehabilitation centre in 1970. They were married six years later, have two sons, Luke and James and two grandchildren.

Libby was supposed to retire after London 2012 but as Stan wryly observed in a recent interview: “It was a bit of a shock when it happened but then 10 seconds later I thought ‘oh well, there’s not much I’m going to be able to do about it.’ She’s enjoying it and that’s the most important thing.” Born with club feet, his wife was originally classified as spina bifida but at the age of 50 discovered the reason for her paraplegia was due to birth-related complications.

Parents

She learned to stand at seven, her parents insisting that she walk 20-30 minutes every day, using full-length calipers, surgical boots and two sticks, before she would eventually be confined to a wheelchair.

Having won seven medals (two gold) at the 1970 Paraplegic Games In Edinburgh in a variety of disciplines, foil fencing, archery, Pentathlon, swimming and wheelchair racing, she was coaxed to try her hand at shooting.

Kosmala explained: “I began with archery and the person I used to shoot arrows with suggested I go to a rifle range . . . I said I didn’t want to be a rifle shooter. But I went, tried it, and my first shot went through the middle of the target.”

She won her first shooting gold medal at the 1976 Paralympics in Toronto. Stan represented Australia at three Paralympics, winning a gold medal at Lawn Bowls (1988, Seoul) and the husband and wife competed against each other in shooting, mixed event, at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000.

Quite chuffed

The outcome? Stan admitted: “It was wonderful to be able to compete in the same sport and she beat me by one point. She was quite chuffed.”

After taking a nine-month break from the sport to look after her two grandsons following London (2012), she returned to international competition at the World Cup in Stoke Mandeville in March 2014.

She said: “A lot of people cannot believe that a woman in her 70s can still be competing in Olympic or Paralympic Games. But rifle shooting is a sport where if you are still able to hold the rifle without any tremor, and you can still see well, you can still shoot very well.”

Quite apart from her medal haul, she has been recognised for her contribution to both the sport of shooting and her work on behalf of people with disabilities. In 1985, she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the sport of air rifle shooting, in 2000 the Australian Sports Medal and a Centenary Medal in 2001.

She thought about retiring but didn’t after London and her husband isn’t convinced that she won’t be around for Tokyo in 2020.

He observed: “You never know. She might have 12 months off and come back energised and ready to go again.” Based on the empirical evidence of her career choices to date, it’s a realistic target.