In this episode, we sit down with Renae Jones - a rising Australian athlete in Trap Shooting who has experienced the thrill of international competition, the pride of reaching Olympic selection trials, and the challenge of redefining success.

Renae’s story begins in regional Victoria, where her family and weekends at the local gun club shaped her love for sport. What started as helping out at junior shoots soon turned into competing on the world stage, travelling across Europe and the Americas before she’d even finished high school. By 2020, she was in Olympic contention, balancing training, study, and selection events just as COVID brought everything to a halt.

Now, with her junior shooting career behind her, Renae is carving a new path. She’s studying Sport Management at Deakin and working with Football Victoria and Commonwealth Games Australia, while keeping the door open for a return to competition. Along the way, she reflects on discipline, resilience, and why Trap Shooting is one of the safest and most misunderstood sports.

This conversation is about more than results on a scoreboard. It’s about the bond of family in sport, the courage to pause without closing the door, and the ways athletes carry their experiences into new roles.

🎧 In this episode, we cover:

• What Trap Shooting is - and why it hooked Renae

• The mental toughness and mindset behind elite performance

• Travelling internationally as a teen and competing against world champions

• Olympic selections and navigating the next steps

• Balancing study, work, and leaving the door open for a return

• Why challenging perceptions matters for the future of shooting in Australia

  
  

📣 Question From the Grandstand
Trap Shooting is taught with some of the highest safety standards in sport. Do you think it should be offered through schools alongside other mainstream sports?

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