Gorgs Reed (née Geikie)

The former pistol shooter on how growing up in the Devon countryside armed her for Olympic qualification

I FIRMLY believe that the reason I achieved Olympic success at London 2012 as a pistol shooter was because I lived, trained and, most importantly, enjoyed everything there is about rural Dartmoor, where I grew up and remain to this day. In my sporting career I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world, meet some incredible people and have the most amazing experiences that I will cherish forever. But there’s no place like home.

At school I did every sporting activity available and managed to represent my country, region and county in cross-country running, netball, hockey and athletics. At home I enjoyed all rural activities, from loading for my best friend’s dad, Barry Colton, out on the pheasant drives to dreaming of catching a salmon.

Horses run through the Geikie family and I have fond memories of being on and off the lead rein out with the Mid Devon Hunt. I’d tiptoe around Dartmoor bogs with a mini Mars bar in my pocket, which progressed to a hip flask of homemade sloe gin. Mum and Dad used to farm, as well as train point-to-pointers, and I remember Mum collecting me from school on my pony, Musky, him being loaded up with the pointers and being taken around the south-west point-topoint circuit as a very important member of the team: the ‘travelling companion’.

I was a proud member of the Mid Devon Hunt branch of the Pony Club, and Pony Club tetrathlon (shooting, running, swimming and cross-country riding) was the first step towards an Olympic dream, with my shooting career starting in a shed loft just outside the small village of Chagford on the edge of Dartmoor, with Pip and Patrick Bugg. The pinnacle of our ‘Mid Devon Devils’ team achievements was competing at the National Tetrathlon Championships at Moreton Morrell College in Warwickshire and then at the Eventing Championships at Sansaw in Shropshire. Our old Land Rover and trailer were bursting at the seams as we ventured ‘north’ – well, north of Bristol…

Foot and mouth disease was part of the reason I got into modern pentathlon. The area around my hometown, Okehampton, was hit hard, which meant I couldn’t take my horse to competitions. But with pentathlon they supply the horses for you, so I learnt to fence and off we went.

Even though I competed at GB level for pentathlon, swimming was never my strength. However, it turned out that shooting was, and I ended up winning a bronze medal for England at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006.

Heather Fell and Kate Pocock – who are from Okehampton’s neighbouring town, Tavistock – are two of my sporting heroes. We grew up together and they went on to win Olympic medals, Kate in Sydney and Heather in Beijing, for modern pentathlon. That was when my Olympic dream became a potential reality. If they could, why couldn’t I?

It was the constant drive to better my own performance and reach the highest level of competition I could that made pistol shooting so addictive for me. I retired in 2016 on a high as British champion, and my .22 pistol and air pistol are now mounted in our coffee table. But working for British Shooting means I feel as though I’m able to help the next generation follow in my footsteps.

Carrying the Olympic torch through Okehampton in 2012 and competing at those Games was beyond words. And still being the only British pistol shooter to have ever qualified and competed at any Olympic Games is something I’m very proud of. I certainly remember the nerves of it all, especially because it was on home soil in London. But what helped me was living in Devon, just keeping my head down, training and sticking to the routine which had got me there — as well as the great friends and family I had around supporting me. There’s something very humbling about running or riding out on Dartmoor in the torrential rain and glorious sun, that gives you perspective and reminds you who you are.