World champion sport shooter Lena Miculek: 'I'm among the least afraid'

EPPING — Lena Miculek, the top female 3-gun competitor in the world, headlined a two-day event at Sig Sauer this past weekend.

The 27-year-old Miculek, who will soon travel to Thailand to represent the United States in competition, was a featured speaker and performer at Sig Freedom Days on Friday and Saturday.

She was joined by her father, Jerry, and mother, Kay, who together have collectively achieved “upwards of 3,000 lifetime wins,” according to Lena Miculek. Often hailed as “the first family of shooting sports," they were among the top-tier marksmen on the grounds of the 143-acre Sig Sauer campus, sharing wisdom, tips and stories with 1,000 ticketed guests.

Miculek demonstrated basic skills relating to shotgun practice, and joked about her own unusual and unique shooting stance.

“People used to make fun of me on the field and say, ‘What are you doing out there, a ballet plié?’ But I’ve learned how to work with what I’ve got, and to figure out how to use all 135 pounds of me” in a male-dominated sport," she said.

She was on stage with her father, known for speed shooting with the revolver — the senior Miculek has emptied a five-shot revolver in .57 seconds in pinpoint accuracy on a paper target. The dad and daughter pair worked with Mossberg shotguns to demonstrate safety, accuracy tips, and their speed-loading talents.

It was speed-loading, combined with dedicated practice and skill that helped usher in Lena Miculek’s first world title in 2012 in Hungary.

Shortly before that major competition a new device (a twin loader) arrived in the mail.

“Now everybody knows when you’re training for a big competition that you don’t change anything beforehand!” she said. “So I thought, I’ll open it after the Hungary competition. Then, about 10 days before the competition, I thought, well, I’ll just see what this thing does.”

After training quickly with her new twin loader, she cemented her first world title, and introduced marksmen from around the world to her new device.

“It was pretty funny,” she said. “Everyone came to congratulate me, and then they all asked, ‘Can we get a look at that twin loader you were using?’”

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After the father-daughter duo concluded their presentation, Lena Miculek was interviewed for this story.

Asked about her passion to attract more women to the sport, she said, “It’s a remarkably empowering sport in a very welcoming community. Through firearms mastery, I’ve found my independence. I travel solo around the world with my dog Letty. But I feel comfortable because I’ve taken responsibility for my own safety.”

Asked about myths she has encountered when training women new to the sport, she added, “A lot of people are under the false impression that a woman carries a gun because she’s afraid. It’s the opposite of that. It is because I have a firearm and proper training, I’m among the least afraid.”

She is one of three world-recognized marksmen representing Sig Sauer on its “Team Sig” demonstration team. Other team members are Max Michel, a Guinness world record holder, who also earned seven world speed shooting championships, and Daniel Horner, the most decorated shooter in the history of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit who was twice selected as the Military Marksmanship Association Soldier of the Year.

Horner, in the presentation before the Miculeks, talked of the link between visualization and performance for training. “Visualization and performance is nothing more than a pre-determined decision in a high-information, low-stress environment,” he said.

Guests of Sig Sauer, who were bused to demonstration fields and lecture tents, spent the day listening to wisdom and tips, enjoying demonstrations — including some with K-9 dogs and handlers — on the leafy, picturesque property of Sig’s newly opened Experience Center.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: World champion sport shooter Lena Miculek at Sig Sauer in Epping