Chateauroux, France. (August 9, 2024): An Army Soldier set an Olympic record this week and secured a spot in the finals in the 2024 games. In this photo by Army Sergeant First Class Kulani Lakanaria, Sergeant Sagen Maddalena, a shooting instructor assigned to the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, fires her rifle from a standing position during the Women's fifty-meter Three Position Rifle Qualifier. Maddalena defeated bronze medalist Qiongyue Zhang of China in a shootout enroute to winning the Silver in her second Olympic appearance. She competed in the same event during the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games where she placed fifth overall.

Maddalena walked on at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Management in May 2018. She joined the rifle team and earned eight All-American selections in air rifle and small-bore shooting before joining the Army.

She enlisted in March 2019 and was assigned to the Army Marksmanship Unit based at Fort Moore, Georgia as a shooter/instructor. The unit was created in 1956 by President Dwight Eisenhower to develop expert marksman and the teams have earned 26 Olympic medals so far.