Deena Wigger McDorman and Mary Kay Wigger

There was not much question what the focus was in the Wigger household. Lones Wigger was a three-time Olympic shooter who won two gold medals and one silver and is a member of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame.

“I started shooting back in 1978 when I was 12 years old because it was really an opportunity to spend more time with my dad,” said Deena Wigger McDorman, who competed at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games.

Lones Wigger was in the U.S. Army at the time, stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, as part of the Army Marksmanship Unit. He also ran a junior shooting program; Deena and her two brothers did not have much choice whether to sign up, though they too enjoyed the sport.

“That was his life, pretty much everything else revolved around that,” Wigger McDorman said. “All of our vacations were at shooting venues throughout the country and all of [my parents] vacations overseas definitely involved a shooting competition.”

After his shooting career, Wigger became the director of the U.S. Shooting Teams Division at what is now known as the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center.

“He was at the Training Center every day until he couldn’t make it,” said his wife, Mary Kay Wigger. “He couldn’t stand to be away from it.”

Listen to more of the StoryCorps conversation between Deena Wigger McDorman and Mary Kay Wigger, including the story of how Lones Wigger managed to fit into his U.S. Army uniform and participate in Deena’s swearing in as a U.S. Army officer.