About James

Born in 1995, James Willett grew up on a farm in Mulwala, New South Wales.

At the age of 14, James was introduced to the sport of Clay Target Shooting through school, practising regularly at his local range, the Corowa Clay Target Club. With much perseverance, commitment and passion, James swiftly progressed through the international rankings, quickly becoming an Australian household name in the sport.

James began competition as a Junior in the double trap discipline (shooting two targets at a time) at the beginning of 2015 and upstaged many of his more fancied rivals around the world. Competing at his first ever World Cup, James shot a junior world record, just missing out on a bronze medal.

James secured a position in the Australian Mens Double Trap team for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Going into Rio as World number 1, James shot a qualifying Olympic Record and after progressing through to the final, finished in 5th place.

With Double Trap no longer an Olympic discipline, and still hungry for more, James made a quick decision post Rio to change to the Trap shooting discipline (shooting one target at a time) with the Tokyo Olympics in sight.

Throughout his very young career, and in addition to securing world records and top world rankings, James has secured 9 international gold medals, 5 silver medals and 5 bronze medals (across events including World Championships, World Cups, World Cup Finals and Oceania Championships) as well as representing Australia in a Commonwealth Games (Gold Coast) and two Olympics (Rio and Tokyo).

At only 27 years of age, James still has many years of international competition potential ahead of him. Not only does James excel in his sport, but he is an inspiration to those who compete alongside him, in both skill and demeanour, and is influential and encouraging to those keen to try their hand at the sport for the first time. He has just started a mature age apprenticeship in 2022 with local builders in Yarrawonga/Mulwala, Kennedy Builders who support a new career path while actively competing around the world and working towards the next Olympic Games.

James, a respected member of the Australian National Squad, is one to watch out for in Paris 2024.

Achievements

Medals