Eyes on the prize: Shooter Mary Tucker wants to add to her Olympic tattoo - with more hardware from Paris
Mary Tucker knew she was breaking the rules.
But when the Olympic Summer Games Tokyo 2020 were pushed back to 2021, Tucker had already made her plans to get an Olympic rings tattoo, a rite of passage for many Olympians after competing at their first Games.
The problem? Her hard-to-get appointment would now fall before Tokyo's 2021 staging.
"I know it's kind of against the rules," Tucker, now 22, tells Olympics.com in a recent interview. She went through with it, anyway, and now has a beautifully-crafted partial sleeve on her right forearm, which encapsulates layers of her (still burgeoning) Olympic experience.
"The bigger flowers are French irises, for the Paris Games," she said, turning over her arm for the camera. "And then the cherry blossoms are the Japanese national flower - for Tokyo. These are Greek ferns bringing it all back to where the Olympics originated."
Tattoo already on her body, Tucker teamed up with Lucas Kozeniesky to claim the silver medal in Tokyo in the mixed 10 metre air rifle team shooting event, and she'll look to add to that haul at Paris 2024.
Adding some more ink, too, perhaps.
"Being able to have my medal is really nice," said Tucker, holding her Tokyo silver. "And I'm thinking of maybe some way trying to incorporate the medals... but I haven't quite figured that out yet."
She's still got time for that.
Mary Tucker: 'Mental health is for everyone'
Long before she became an elite athlete, Tucker, who grew up in Sarasota, Florida, felt at odds with her mental health, recalling that middle school was especially challenging for her.
But as she made her way to the University of Kentucky for college, Tucker decided to take that struggle and make something of it, opting to study psychology, health and well-being.
"I learned a lot about myself [in school] and realised who I was in that moment was not who I actually wanted to be, so I made some changes," Tucker explained. "I found where I was supposed to be, who I actually wanted to be, and really started prioritising my mental health and how I wanted to be."
It's turned into a passion for Tucker not only as she's captured World Championships medals and a World Cup title (in 10 metre air rifle at New Delhi, 2021), but also as she's interacted more with up-and-coming junior athletes who she sees a lot of her (former) self in.
"These junior athletes, you know, they kind of get a one-track mind sometimes," she said. "It's really important to keep reminding them to have that good balance."
Tucker has especially embraced the different experiences of each individual - athletes and beyond.
"Mental health is for everyone... everybody does struggle with different parts of it," she said. "And the most important thing is really trusting yourself. In shooting, having the confidence and the trust in yourself can make or break if you're going to win those medals or not. If you really believe in yourself and you really like who you are, you're going to be able to do better in any part of the world."
On having her team in Paris, her tattoo as a conversation-starter
"I was horrible," Tucker laughed when she described her start in shooting, which came at the late age of 16.
Not to be deterred, Tucker self-taught, mostly online, and went on to win a fist full of collegiate events before her Olympic debut in Tokyo. She transferred to West Virginia, but since has relocated to train with four-time U.S. Olympian Matt Emmons in Czechia.
"I'm still a baby in this sport," she told Team USA. “A lot of people have 10 or 15 years of experience. I have six.”
Paris will be vastly different from Tucker's Olympic debut in Tokyo in terms of spectators and crowds, something Tucker said she's most excited for because of those close to her.
"In Tokyo, I wasn't able to have my personal coach there, so it was kind of difficult, especially with the time zones," Tucker said of their communicating. "Being able to process everything mentally and emotionally with my parents, but also express like, 'I'm nervous. What do I do?' It was really difficult. So having both my family and my coach there is going to definitely make this way better for them."
She hopes for some of the kind of success she tasted in 2021, too. But won't be adding to her tattoo before then. In the meantime, it serves as the perfect conversation starter wherever she goes in the world: There's the Olympic rings on her arm.
"I love on planes, travelling, and people will ask questions about the rings," she said, smiling. "And then we can kind of talk about any sport that they're interested in, and they always love bringing up whoever their favourites are. Being able to talk about that and just have kind of this world connection through sport, that's really nice."
Related content