Paola trap shooter Derrick Mein has sights set on competing in Tokyo Summer Olympics

For the first time in 12 years, the U.S. will have two male representatives in the 2020 Olympics competing in trap shooting. That news is especially noteworthy for Kansas Citians and the greater KC Metro area.

One of the two competitors, Derrick Mein, is one of our own — a local Kansas native who resides in Paola and who worked at Powder Creek Shooting Park in Lenexa until 2014.

For Mein, the Olympics appearance is a dream come true, and a long time coming. He grew up in southeast Kansas, where his dad fostered a love for the outdoors while quail and deer hunting. That soon trickled over to competitive shooting.

“With the help of my dad, I began to develop my skills as a competitive shooter and entered my first competition at age eight,” Mein said.

It seemed he was destined for shooting greatness from the start. He won his first major national championship for age 14 and under in 1999. From there, he would go on to win 13 state championships, multiple world championships, and lead the USA Sporting Clays Team to multiple team world titles throughout his career.

Mein’s shooting prowess as a teen would eventually help earn him a dual scholarship to Lindenwood University, where he competed both in baseball and shooting. Eventually, he transferred to K-State University to pursue an animal science degree. While there, he won the ACUI Collegiate Clay Target Championship, a format that includes international trap, international skeet, American skeet, American trap, and sporting clays.

While his accolades are numerous, they didn’t come without challenges and heartbreak. In 2008, the same year he graduated KSU, Mein was in the hunt to qualify for his first Olympic appearance.

“The qualifying rounds to make it into the Olympics are always extremely close,” Mein noted. “Usually within a few targets.”

In 2008, the top two of the final six competitors in the qualifying rounds were going to the Olympics.

“I missed getting into the top six by one target,” he said.

For Mein, the narrow miss was gut-wrenching, but his determination didn’t falter. In 2011, Mein made his first world cup team, which brought him to the international stage in Sydney, Au. That same year, he was crowned the US Open FITASC Champion.

As he continued to compete, Mein married his wife, Diana, in 2013, and they welcomed a baby girl, Rylie, in 2016. With his biggest supporter, Diana, fully behind him going into 2017, Mein’s sights were set on 2020.

Many things had to go right for him to secure an Olympic berth. For a country to earn a quota spot in the Olympics, there are designated shooting events that a country’s competitors must win. For the U.S. Men’s Trap program, that boost came during the Pan American Games Lima in 2019, when Brian Burrows and Derek Haldeman took gold and silver, earning two spots for the U.S. in the 2020 Games.

With two spots locked in, next was the U.S. Olympic trials. The first round took place in September 2019 in Kerrville, Texas, where Mein took and maintained the lead into the second round in Tucson, Arizona.

Mein’s momentum stalled the first few days in Tucson, and he lost his lead. Thoughts of narrowly missing the Olympics again crept into his head.

“It was one of those moments where you go through panic and you just have to lean on people around you,” Mein recalled. “My coach, Lance, and Diana, both got me focused again and back in the groove.”

“It felt like auto pilot again breaking targets.”

In the following days, Mein regained his lead and soared to the head of the pack, ultimately winning by 11 targets and securing his spot in the 2020 Olympic Games. After intense practice and preparation since 2017, and a lifetime of competition, it was a huge relief.

“A lot of weight lifted off of me because it is such a long process just to make the team,” Mein said. “The unknowns of relying on someone else to earn a quota spot so we could even send somebody and having that happen to get us to this point just added to the pressure in the final moments of truth.”

With his spot officially secured, Mein had time to reflect on the accomplishment and all that it means.

“It’s such an honor to have the opportunity to represent the United States,” he said. “There’s nothing better than watching the American flag get raised to the top of the pole during the national anthem.”

“I’m looking forward to hearing our national anthem with me standing on top of that podium this summer,” he added.

The 2020 Olympics are scheduled to take place in Tokyo from July 24 through August 9.