05/30/2026
Lanny Basham did the right thing. 🙌🏼
Good job to BOTH of them!
In 1976, one of the first women Olympic medalists in shooting tied for gold. The judges checked a single paper target.
The 50-meter rifle three positions event in Montreal did not separate the competitors. Men and women stood on the exact same line, firing at the exact same distance. Margaret Murdock was a 37-year-old surgical nurse and a major in the US Army. She held a 14-pound rifle in the July heat. The range was quiet except for the sharp, mechanical cracks of .22 caliber rounds.
Competitors fired 120 shots. Prone, kneeling, and standing.
After the final relay, the officials tallied the scores. Murdock shot 1162 out of 1200. Her American teammate, Lanny Bassham, also shot 1162. It was a perfect statistical tie for the Olympic gold. Spectators waited for a live shoot-off.
At the time, the international rulebook contained no provision for a live shoot-off in mixed Olympic events. According to the 1976 regulations, a tie was broken by examining the final ten shots on the paper targets, looking for microscopic proximity to the center ring. The mechanism was entirely administrative, decided behind closed doors.
The Olympic officials took the paper targets into a back room. They did not broadcast the review. They measured the perforations in the cardboard. When they emerged, they declared Bassham the gold medalist and Murdock the silver.
The international governing body for the sport was already fielding complaints from male athletes about female shooters outperforming them on the world stage. The target review kept the gold in male hands.
The scoreboard updated. No extra shots fired. No tie-breaking round. Second place.
Murdock packed her gear into her case. She had matched the best score in the world, bullet for bullet, but a bureaucracy with a ruler handed her silver.
The medal ceremony was scheduled for the next afternoon. The wooden podium was rolled out. Bassham was directed to the highest center block. Murdock was directed to the lower step on his right. The officials took their places. The medals were draped over their necks. Bassham had asked the judges to issue two golds that morning. They told him to stand on his mark.
Then the national anthem began to play.
Bassham did not look at the judges. He reached down to his right. He grabbed Murdock by the arm and physically pulled her up onto the top tier.
They stood shoulder to shoulder on the gold medal block while the music played.
The Olympic officials froze. There was no rule in the book for this. They could not walk out and force her down while the anthem played. Murdock didn't say a word. She just looked straight ahead. Her silver medal bumped awkwardly against Bassham's gold, a physical reminder of the administrative ruling that put her there.
The scoreboard gave him the gold. He gave her the podium.
The photograph of them standing together went onto the wire services. It was the first time two athletes shared the top step in Olympic shooting history. Bassham formally petitioned the International Olympic Committee to issue a second gold medal. The committee refused.
Four years later, the international governing body rewrote their rulebook. They banned women from competing against men in the rifle events. The mixed Olympic division was eliminated entirely.
Margaret Murdock's silver medal sits in a display case today. The official Olympic records still list her in second place.
Margaret Murdock: the woman who won silver but stood on gold.
Source: 1976 Montreal Olympic Archives.
Verified via: USA Shooting Historical Records, The Olympic Studies Centre.
(Some details summarized for brevity.)
