Taeko Takeba
Takeba made her official debut at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where she wound up to sixteenth in the inaugural women's trap with a score of 56 hits, narrowly escaping from the last spot in a field of seventeen shooters by four points. Shortly after the Games, Takeba rose to a sporting fame with a gold medal victory over Russian shooter and world record holder Elena Tkach at the 2001 ISSF World Cup final with a remarkable score of 88 targets. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Takeba qualified for her second Japanese squad, as  a 38-year-old, in the women's trap by attaining a minimum score of 68 and securing an Olympic ticket from the 2002 ISSF World Cup series in Shanghai, China. Improving her position from the previous Games, she amassed a total score of 59 hits out of 75 targets in the qualifying stage, but narrowly missed the final round by a single-point deficit with an eighth-place finish.