Thomas Garrigus

Thomas Irvin Garrigus (November 9, 1946 – December 29, 2006) was an American Olympic athlete who competed in shooting sports. A native of Oregon, he competed at the 1968 Summer Games where he won a silver medal, and later served as a coach.

Early life Garrigus was born in Hillsboro, Oregon, to Donald and Wanda (née Williams) Garrigus. He was raised in Hillsboro, a western suburb of Portland, and began skeet shooting at the age of three. There he graduated from Hillsboro High School before joining the United States Air Force, serving from 1965 to 1969. He was the youngest member of the U.S. shooting team at the Games. Garrigus tied for second place in the event, with John Braithwaite of the United Kingdom winning the gold medal with a world record score of 198.

Held on October 19, the event had a three-way tie for second place between Garrigus, Kurt Czekalla of East Germany, and Pavel Senichev of the Soviet Union all with a score of 196. In the first shoot-off between the three competitors, Czekalla and Garrigus had scores of 25 in this event where clay pigeons are shot, while Senichev was eliminated with a score of 22. Garrigus lived in Oregon, where he served as the director for the Hillsboro Trap & Skeet Club before moving to Idaho where he was the director of the Boise Gun Club. In 1996, he worked as a referee for the shooting events at the Summer Games in Atlanta and was a torch bearer on the route through Salem, Oregon. Garrigus died in Plains, Montana, at the age of 60.