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Olympic Gold Medalist Returns to Eatonton

Rick Devens

Two time Olympic gold medalist Sgt. Vincent Hancock was back in his hometown of Eatonton this weekend. Hancock was given a key to the city Saturday afternoon. In the morning he put on a shooting exhibition.

"By the time he was in the fifth grade he was out shooting everybody on our team from seventh to the twelfth grade and we tried really hard to talk 4H into him being able to shoot. But they're not really very flexible so he had to wait until the seventh grade. Then he started setting the world on fire," says Hancock's former coach to the crowd of local fans.

Sgt. Vincent Hancock has not let up. Hancock won skeet shooting gold at the Olympic Games in London and Saturday he shared the victory with some hometown fans.

"Hopefully I get to meet every single one of you guys because I want to shake your hand and thank you in person. Thank you guys very much," Hancock tells the crowd before he begins to shoot.

"A lot of these guys are my friends and I met them when I first started this game. Being able to just come out here and see their faces again, it brings a smile to my face. To know that they were watching me out there, watching me win that second gold medal, it brings it back home for me," says Hancock.

Hancock was not alone in London. For the second time he had his wife in the stands cheering him to Olympic gold.

"My role is just to make things easier for him. Just keep life as normal as possible and just be there to support him with whatever he may need," says Rebekah Hancock, Sgt. Hancock's wife.

But Rebekah has done more than that. Last year her husband almost walked away from the gun range for good.

"I wouldn't have been in this sport if it wouldn't been for her. She's the one that changed my mind last year and convinced me that through all the things that I've been through, I needed to really look at it and think about it hard before I made the decision to quit," says Hancock.

Hancock stayed on the range and set an Olympic record in London as he became the first man to ever win back to back golds in skeet shooting. Saturday Hancock shot for his hometown fans. A different sort of pressure.

"First round of the Olympics I was shaking pretty good but this a lot of people know me and over there I didn't know them. It's always nerve racking going out there especially with me not having shot since the Olympics. That's like my off season pretty much is taking three weeks. So, we'll see how it goes," says Hancock with a laugh.

Hancock thrilled the crowd with a world class shooting display. He may have even encouraged some future Olympians.

"He told us about, if you ever want to go to the Olympics and do something, don't take no as an answer," says Garrick Enbry.

"I think it'd be pretty cool coming back to the little town Eatonton and be an Olympic gold medalist," says Jackson Enbry.

And why stop at two? Hancock says he will be in Rio for the 2016 Olympics and that he plans on competing in the 2020 games as well.
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