Born on October 20, 1988, Ray Jacques Bassil is a Lebanese trap shooter. His Arabic name is .
Both the 2016 ISSF World Cup in Nicosia and the 2019 Asian Shooting Championships in Doha awarded her the gold medal.
Bassil has also competed in the Olympics three times for Lebanon, in 2012, 2016, and 2020.
R. Bassil Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Bassil took up trap shooting at the urging of her father Jacques when she was 8 years old.
Beginning her competitive career in 2006, she has been actively involved in the sport ever since.
Bassil’s first medal was a bronze in the 2007 ISSF Junior World Championships in Nicosia, Cyprus.
During the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, she placed 18th for Lebanon; in 2016, she placed 14th in Rio de Janeiro.
At the 2016 ISSF World Cup in Nicosia, Bassil took home the gold for the first time in her career.
She earned a spot in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo by winning gold at the 2019 Asian Shooting Championships in Doha, Qatar.
Bassil represented Lebanon at the 2020 Olympics, where she placed 21st in the women’s trap competition.
Bassil received his bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame University–Louaize in Food and Beverage Management.
She is trilingual, able to converse well in Arabic, English, and French.
After another lockdown was implemented in Lebanon at the beginning of this year to prevent the spread of Covid-19, two-time Olympic medalist and Asian champion shooter Ray Bassil was forced to return to the basement garage of her apartment building to practise.
The 32-year-old Trap shooter has spent a great deal of time in her garage near Jounieh over the past year preparing for Tokyo with the help of her cousin and temporary coach Nahi for her third consecutive Olympic Games debut.
Bassil trained her reflexes and balance by “dry shooting” while waiting for facilities to reopen in Lebanon, a term she coined to describe the practise she engaged in because it included neither firing bullets nor hitting any actual targets.
I had to figure out a solution.
I had to get myself at least halfway prepared for the season “The National, Bassil informed us.
“Imagine diving headfirst into fierce competition with no time to acclimate. Starting afresh is a monumental challenge. And that, at least, kept me in the spirit.”
The first day of competition for Lebanese trap shooter Ray Bassil at the Tokyo Olympics is in the books.
Bassil qualified for the Final on the first day after hitting 67 of 75 targets throughout three rounds of 25 targets each.
In the first round, she scored 24, in the second round she scored 20, and in the third round she scored 23.
Conclusion
She now has a total of 67 points, putting her in 23rd place after Day 1. The only athletes ahead of her are Guatemala’s Ana Waleska Soto Abril and Egypt’s Maggy Ashmawy, who also have 67 points.
This Thursday will be the last day to use all fifty plates to guarantee a spot in the Final. There is still hope, and nothing is impossible,” Bassil posted on Instagram after the rally.