Vera Koo is a first-generation Chinese American woman whose life reads like an adventure in courage and reinvention. She is a 79-year-old wife, mother of three and grandmother of six, author, entrepreneur, and retired professional athlete who broke barriers in action pistol shooting. Through her adulthood, she has enjoyed a variety of outdoor activities, including snow and water skiing, equestrian, windsurfing, and rucking and camping. Action pistol shooting is where she really excelled: Vera has been the national and world titleholder in the sport and won the Bianchi Cup women’s championship eight times. She now competes in shotgun sports, specifically in sporting clay shooting, at the Huntsman World Senior Games.

Vera’s memoirs, “The Most Unlikely Champion” and “Wisdom and Things: Essays from an Unlikely Champion,” share her remarkable journey from China and Hong Kong to the U.S., her family’s entrepreneurial success, and the resilience that carried her through loss, faith, and unexpected triumph. Vera continues to mentor others with the hope that we all discover the “unlikely champion” within ourselves.

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