{"id":7550,"date":"2018-07-17T16:27:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T16:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/?p=7550"},"modified":"2018-07-19T18:46:22","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T18:46:22","slug":"vero-koo-an-unlikely-shooting-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/spring-summer-2018\/vero-koo-an-unlikely-shooting-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Vero Koo: An Unlikely Shooting Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Y<\/span>ou could say China-born Vera Koo is an unlikely shooting star. Particularly after learning that she is over 70, looks like a gracefully retired fashion model, and has had a turbulent life with plenty of challenges, distractions, and heartbreaks.<\/p>\n

But she is\u2014a shooting star, that is.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Vera Koo with Bianchi gun.<\/p><\/div>\n

The kind that pumps 60,000 to 80,000 rounds a year from exotic target pistols in preparation for international shooting competitions like the NRA World Action Pistol Championships in the U.S., Australia, Germany, and Italy. These are events that, by the way, she\u2019s been winning for the last two decades. She is arguably one of the most successful female pistol shooters ever with a string of victories in such esoteric event categories as Action Pistol, Barricade, Modified Moving Target, and Falling Plate. Use your imagination on that last one.<\/p>\n

But Vera Koo had never handled a gun until she was in her 40s. She\u2019d been afraid of them. And unlike most of the other shooters whom she\u2019s defeated, she didn\u2019t come from a military background, never hunted animals, and never had a gun in the house.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Vera Koo at the Bianchi Cup Championship.<\/p><\/div>\n

Road to the Range<\/h3>\n

Her road to the range was long and unlikely. Koo chronicles her story and dedication to her sport in her book, Vera Koo, The Most Unlikely Champion<\/em>. Born into a strictly patriarchal Chinese family, her early life in Hong Kong was defined by traditional Chinese values that placed women in subservient roles as mothers and caregivers. Her world first began to open after the family moved to San Francisco when Vera was 12.<\/p>\n

The challenge of preserving Chinese culture while surrounded by the turbulent San Francisco culture of the \u201960s first exposed her to new role-changing possibilities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Vera Koo after the competition shoot off<\/p><\/div>\n

Learning to Stand Tall<\/h3>\n

She met her would-be husband, Carlos, at a student conference in Santa Cruz, California, when she was 17. Carlos, also of Chinese heritage, was a sophomore frat boy at Stanford. They became inseparable throughout her years at San Francisco State. They married when Vera was 23 under what she describes as yuan fen<\/em>, the Chinese concept of fate bringing people together.<\/p>\n

What followed was a traumatic few years where they nursed Carlos\u2019 ailing mother and suffered the tragic loss of their third child who died of a rare genetic mutation, glycogen storage disease, before he reached two. At age 30, Vera admitted, \u201cI didn\u2019t know it was possible to feel a pain so deep and total. It was like a piece of me had been removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In what was to become a repeating pattern, Vera learned that the only way to face apparent hopelessness was to \u201cstand tall against loss and sorrow and to use these things as your motivation to move forward, no matter how hard it might be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family moved to Singapore where Carlos had accepted a good engineering job. Vera and their two daughters played in his wake. For Vera, that meant trying to match her husband\u2019s insatiable sports drive. They took up horse jumping, a sport at which they were both proficient in their youths. During a jumping class, Vera\u2019s spirited horse took the bit between his teeth, galloped off, and then slammed on the brakes, launching her over his head.<\/p>\n

This time, Vera\u2019s test was to recover from a broken back and then, when she was barely out of bed, jump right into windsurfing lessons. The challenge, once mastered, led to passion and another step toward inner discovery: Perseverance.<\/p>\n

They moved on. This time back to California to start their own real-estate investment business. When the housing market collapsed in the late \u201980s, they almost went bankrupt and only survived after several years of maintaining and managing their own properties, often through 18-hour workdays and with no help.<\/p>\n

In 1991, Vera was 45. Her three children were growing up, and the turbulence behind her had smoothed out. She recalled the first time she\u2019d ever handled a gun.<\/p>\n

Introduction to Shooting<\/h3>\n

It was years earlier when Carlos had taken her trap shooting. She\u2019d hit 25 clay pigeons, not bad for a complete novice. He\u2019d also purchased a few guns to take on their camping trips to protect them from bears, or so he thought. Her fear of firing them and an accidental misfiring of a friend\u2019s .30-06 rifle eventually scared her into a firearm safety class at De Anza College. In her typical style, Vera began to set goals. They ranged from her first bull\u2019s-eye on day one to becoming the best female shooter in the beginner class\u2014there were three. Then she topped all 22 classmates in the intermediate class, the majority of whom were men. They\u2019d included cops, security officers, and guys who just loved guns.<\/p>\n

One goal led to another. And as she met them, the satisfaction deepened. \u201cIt gave me a sense of purpose I\u2019d never had before,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d never had the opportunity to see how far I could take something on my own.\u201d With encouragement from her husband and shooting mentor Jim O\u2019Young, she entered the world of tournament shooting and never looked back.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Vera Koo with Awards<\/p><\/div>\n

Gold Medal Performances<\/h3>\n

She nabbed 19 gold medal performances and several national and world records from age 45 to 70. On the way, she even powered through an affair by Carlos, her husband and soulmate. It led her to a deep dive into religion. \u201cWhen I found out about Carlos\u2019 affair, it was like a bomb had gone off in my life. But I see now that God allowed that bomb to explode\u2026 so I could use that energy to change my life\u2026 I harnessed that destructive energy and directed it toward something productive. For me, it was competitive shooting\u2026 But honestly, it could have been anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Vera Koo, she likens it to a Chinese word that sounds like \u201cshing ping.\u201d It\u2019s a concept that means having harmony in your heart. It means you\u2019ve made peace with everything and you\u2019re not holding on to any old wounds or grudges.<\/p>\n

Through her amazing rise in the male-dominated universe of competitive shooting and through all the tough challenges that life has thrown at her along the way, Vera Koo has achieved \u201cshing ping\u201d including strong reconciliation with Carlos. And she\u2019s become a true shooting star\u2014except for one thing. A real shooting star flames out.<\/p>\n

Not this one.<\/p>\n

Vera Koo, The Most Unlikely Champion, by Vera Koo and Justin Pahl. Published by Balboa Press Publishing, 2017.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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